What Comes After
by OLD KH JUNK ACCOUNT
Summary: Ten years after the defeat of Xemnas, a new threat to the worlds is building... a threat not from the Darkness, but from the Light. Continuation of 'The Thoughts of Zexion,' so you should probably read that first! [PROBABLY WILL NEVER BE FINISHED!]
1. Prologue 1: Roxas

**Prologue 1: Roxas**

There was an intensely bright light, like the sun had exploded, and then suddenly I could see again. I could hear the sound of waves lapping up on a beach somewhere, and children playing in the distance.

I reached my hand up from the grass, and scratched my head.

Wait. I could feel my own body, my own hair. I could move.

For the first time in what seemed like forever, I was _myself_ again.

_My_ body, _my_ voice, _my_ thoughts... nothing was left of Sora but memories.

And not much of those remained. In the years following the death of Xemnas, I felt like I was being swallowed into Sora's being. For the first month, or maybe the first year, I was able to see and hear anything Sora did. I could hear his thoughts almost as if they were my own--but they weren't, I could tell. We were one, but I was still myself.

And then it got worse. At first, I wasn't able to "step out" of Sora and make myself seen and heard by others anymore. I could still see and hear anything that Sora did, but I wasn't able to communicate with anyone but him. He kept me company, but it was always too much like talking to yourself--especially without any memory of my own past.

There just wasn't anything else to talk about after a while.

Not long after that, my senses started to shut off. First was hearing--I could still see what was going on around me, but there was no sound. I couldn't tell what anyone was saying, and had to read Sora's thoughts just to figure out what was happening most of the time.

It got worse. Barely a week seemed to pass before I stopped being able to see anything through Sora's eyes like I could before. I could still hear his thoughts, and we could still communicate, but... that wasn't enough.

I couldn't stand being nothing but a _part_. If this was what being complete was, I don't know why the Organization ever wanted it.

_I_ certainly didn't want it now.

And then, it all stopped. I couldn't hear Sora's thoughts anymore. I couldn't tell if he could hear mine or not--and if he could, he wasn't saying anything to me about it anyway.

As if he _could_ at that point.

After that, I was doomed to float forever in an endless sea of darkness.

No, not darkness... light. Bright, blinding light, like staring into the sun.

It burned. For weeks, or maybe months, it _burned._

I thought I would be destroyed. I felt that I _was_ being destroyed.

That's when my memory of being part of Sora ends. The burning stopped, and after that there was only sleep... until now.

Something had changed.

After that one last burst of light, I had awakened.

I was no longer Sora. No longer just a part of Sora, doomed to be absorbed into his being by the burning light.

I knew I was not Sora... but now there was another problem. Who _was_ I? I had no memory of anything, not even my own name.

I stood up, brushing the grass off of my bare legs.

_Oh crap._

I was naked from head to toe. I could tell that my face was rapidly turning red, even though nobody was around to see me. It just didn't feel right to be walking around with nothing on.

There was a beach nearby, so I headed that way. I knew I didn't really want to steal someone's towel, but I didn't really have much of a choice--it was either a stolen towel or exposing myself to everyone I met, and I was sure that I was too old to get away with running around naked outside like a little kid now.

It wasn't long before I found an unattended towel. Whoever it once belonged to seemed to be gone--I didn't see anyone near it, anyway, so I grabbed it and wrapped it around my waist, making sure to tie it so it wouldn't fall down.

Suddenly I heard a voice behind me.

"Roxas? Is that you?"

I turned around. The person talking was a young man--probably about my age, I thought--wearing green camouflage swimming trunks.

What was that he called me? _Roxas?_ It sounded oddly familiar--wasn't someone named Roxas a member of the Organization once? I thought I had remembered Sora and his friends mentioning him.

Suddenly my head ached. _Bad._ I fell to the ground, gripping my head in pain. I lost control of my movements, thrashing on the ground randomly, as if electricity was running through my body for a second. The other boy panicked and ran, calling for help to a group of others.

And then it stopped, as suddenly as it came.

And I _remembered._

_I_ was Roxas.


	2. Prologue 2: Riku

**Prologue 2: Riku**

Everyone has to grow up sometime.

I've found this to be more true than I had ever expected in the recent years. Everyone knew Sora and Kairi were going to end up together--we just didn't think of the side-effects.

Namely, Sora and Kairi spending _a lot_ more time with each other, and a lot less with anyone else. I guess anyone in their first year of marriage would want some privacy...

That, and the fact that Sora's parents always opted him out of Sex Ed, so he's probably been doing a lot of "learning" lately.

Even when I'm thinking about how much I miss them, those two are always good for a laugh.

Everyone seems to be drifting apart now... We were all invited to the wedding, of course, but that was probably the last time we were all together again, just like when we were kids.

Wakka's left the islands to play Blitzball in a pro team, Selphie went to college somewhere in Radiant Garden, and Tidus... well, who _knows_ where he's been. Sora's moved out of his parents' house, and moved in with Kairi at a little place that the three of us built together.

And I... I've finally gotten a chance to do what I always dreamed of.

Drifting throughout the universe on a Gummi Ship, exploring as many other worlds as I can find... and this time, without Xehanort's Heartless around to cause trouble for everyone. For the first time in a long time, I finally feel safe going outside of my own backyard.

I always pretended I wasn't afraid in my earlier years, but I was. Even as I chose to take Xehanort's "gift" of Darkness, I was still afraid of it--and of Xehanort himself. I talked a big game, but the whole time I was still only a scared little child. Half the time, it was more Xehanort talking than me anyway--by the time Sora and I met in Hollow Bastion, Xehanort had possessed me and was controlling my every move.

But not anymore. There is no Xehanort now. The last shreds of his existence were purged from me right before the battle with Xemnas, never to hurt anyone ever again.

But the Darkness remained. At first I had believed that Darkness was purely evil, like it was just an extension of Xehanort and the other Heartless. But I've slowly come to realize that this is not true. It's like what King Mickey said, all those years ago... _"Your Darkness is your own, just like your Light."_

My Darkness is no longer a tool to be used by Xehanort, no longer something to be afraid of. It's just another part of _me._

I just wish Sora and Kairi were here to see the worlds with me. I guess I still haven't quite grown up, after all... they're letting their lives go on, while I'm still here, hanging onto a childhood dream.

At least, most of the time, it's a fairly good dream.

The Heartless are showing up less often now, it seems. There hasn't been a major attack since before the wedding, and what few Heartless have shown up since were easily fought off, even without the help of Sora and I. There was a time when there were so many that a normal person couldn't hope to fight them all off--but now, they rarely show up more than ten at a time, and even groups of that size are becoming rarer and rarer on most worlds.

Another change. At least this way my journeys throughout the worlds can be peaceful.


	3. Prologue 3: Vexen

**Prologue 3: Vexen**

My latest project seems to be progressing quite well.

After Zexion's clone finished developing, I began work on finding a way to acquire a new body for Zexion's little friend. She mentioned having green hair and purple eyes, and I immediately knew where to search for the required DNA--those hair and eye colors are excessively rare, and only show up with any frequency in a certain group of people in the Twilight World.

These are the descendants of the ancient inhabitants of Castle Oblivion, of course. At first I did not know where to look, as it's very likely that this ancient tribe has dispersed throughout the Twilight World by now.

However, I was lucky enough to get a bit of information from the girl herself before she wandered off again one day. Apparently, her family lived in a small town several miles from Castle Oblivion at one point. Unless they have moved away by now, it's likely that they--or at least some object of theirs that may still hold hairs or skin cells to extract DNA from--can still be found in the area.

My search quickly came up with results. As there was only one family there with both green hair and purple eyes, it can be assumed that they are her parents. Though other families had similar features as well, the majority of them did not show any signs of being directly descended from the tribe that once lived in Castle Oblivion--the one family I initially discovered was the only possible option.

I traveled to the family's house at the darkest point of night, levitating above the ground to avoid making any noise as I went. This was considerably easier with my new, younger body than it would have been before--especially without carrying my shield, which was rather too heavy to be carried around when it wasn't necessary.

It didn't take long to extract the required DNA from the two sleeping parents--thanks to the device I had used, neither of them were disturbed, and continued to sleep throughout the process. They were not harmed in any way by the process, partially by the request of the girl and partially out of my own preference.

As soon as I had returned, I went to work developing the DNA into the cells required for the cloning process. As I had no way of acquiring the genetic material of the girl herself, I instead had to create a substitute--by combining the DNA of her parents.

It was rather similar to the old way of cloning that I had originally tried, long before I came up with my current method. As much as I would have rather used my more recent cloning process, it wasn't possible in this case, so I went ahead and developed the small amounts of DNA I had extracted into the correct cells... and then allowed them to come together, creating a small and undeveloped zygote.

After that, the cloning process was really no different than the one I use now. Much like the clones made of myself, Lexaeus, and Zexion, the girl's clone would reside in a life-support pod for nine months before it was complete. Somewhere around the sixth month, based on Zexion's first-hand observations, the girl's soul would begin to infuse into the body, and I would need to diffuse the excess energy.

Zexion's clone barely made it, thanks to that little complication. I had to alter the machine at the last second, just as Zexion's soul was beginning to bond with the fetus, to prevent an overload that would have surely resulted in Zexion's death.

This time, I wouldn't need to act so quickly, as the machine was set up to dispose of the extra energy automatically.

I often wonder: have scientists on other worlds done the same things that I have accomplished? Have any of them discovered how to create an entirely new being from nothing but DNA? Or to ressurrect those who are dead in the same way, not losing anything in the process?

My own experiments are sometimes surprising even to myself, it seems.


	4. Prologue 4: Lexaeus

**Prologue 4: Lexaeus**

The castle has been quiet these days.

_Too_ quiet, I might add, even for one who prefers silence as myself. The place feels empty somehow, now that only three of us are left. I'm even beginning to miss the sounds of Demyx practicing on his sitar, and of Marluxia hurrying along the halls and making sure every last one of his decorations was in place and unharmed.

Even the sound of Xigbar's guns going off during one of his many target practice sessions would be a welcome sound to me now, no matter how much the sound annoyed me in the past.

It doesn't help that none of the three of us left are known for talking very much. Vexen is always locked away in his lab, working on his latest project--speaking of which, having the girl around will be a pleasant change from this endless silence. And Zexion... well, he's certainly more talkative than I am, but even so he was never one of the chattiest members of our Organization.

I've mostly been turning to the radio lately, when I feel the silence has gone on for too long. It's difficult to pick up very many good stations from here, but that's probably just because I'm twelve floors under the ground.

I would have preferred the peace of death to this life, but it seems our work on these worlds is not yet finished. The other day, Zexion mentioned a new type of creature unlike any he had ever seen--almost like a Heartless, but composed of Light. It's certain that these creatures are a threat, and all that we have read in the ancient scrolls seems to confirm this.

They may be the same creatures said to serve Gil-Neithev that were mentioned in the scrolls; Zexion certainly believes that they are, and the descriptions match up perfectly. Fortunately, they have not yet begun to appear on this world. It's hard to tell what worlds they exist on currently--we have no way to send scouts to many worlds at a time, now that only three of us remain.

It seems that history is repeating itself. I have no doubt that, if one were to look back in history even further than the times depicted on the scrolls, you would find an event similar to the attacks of the Heartless that we have seen in our own lives. And this invasion that is brewing as we speak is what came next; first there was an attack from the Dark, and next will be one from the Light.

Only now there is no Xehanort to cut Gil-Neithev down and seal the being away at the heart of a world. The ancient ways of the Warriors of Darkness are likely to be lost; the methods of creating the doors and trapping Gil-Neithev are almost certainly forgotten.

And the heroes who fought back the invasion of the Dark are still unaware that the opposite side can be just as much of a threat. Sora, Riku, and even the mouse King, Mickey... none of them have truly realized that both Light and Dark are dangerous, just as both are helpful.

It seems that our time to prove ourselves to the world, to wash away the stain that Xemnas' treachery has left on Organization XIII's name, will soon arrive.


	5. Prologue 5: ?

**Author's Note:** Last prologue-chapter before the real thing finally gets started. Any guesses as to who's talking in this one? Here's a hint: it's someone you've seen before, but **not** someone who's shown up in Thoughts of Zexion.

* * *

**Prologue 5: Someone Else?**

The time long spoken of in the prophecies of the ancients soon approaches.

I have watched all things from my place, high above this World. Through magic, and through my contacts on other worlds, I have seen the defeat of Xehanort, the banishment of the Darkness itself, the fall of Organization XIII, and the annointing of the Chosen One...

The one who will bring the Worlds back into Light.

The writings of the ancients tell of a time when the Light World was a paradise, bathed in the Light. I was not fortunate enough to have been born during that time, but I know it to be true... the new age of Light is coming, when the worlds will be purged of Darkness and ruled by our lord, Gil-Neithev.

I have seen Gil-Neithev's approach. The island prison that was unsealed in pursuit of Darkness has nevertheless aided the cause of Light, releasing our lord unto the world once again.

Years have passed, and Gil-Neithev has taken a place among the people of that world to better prepare the world for the coming of the Light. Influencing the leaders of that world, Gil-Neithev has passed the ancient teachings of the Followers of the Light to the people of the islands. As it was long ago, the ways of Light have become common on that world, and the teachings of the ancients are known by every child from an early age.

The enemies of the Light have mounted a feeble defense, taking up residence in the Castle That Never Was, long abandoned by its first inhabitants. They are unaware of what approaches--they refuse to accept the ways of the Light, choosing to wallow in the Darkness alone instead.

They will be washed away along with all others in the Flood of Light that approaches.

The rest of my kind have turned away from the Light... they too will be eliminated as Gil-Neithev's wrath is unleashed. I do not yet know of their exact location, but I can feel their power--the connections among my kind are not easily broken.

But the Light of Gil-Neithev will break even the strongest of bonds.

I must prepare for that day...


	6. Chapter 1: A Dream

**Chapter 1: A Dream**

There was a sandstorm brewing.

Sounds of battle raged in the distance for several minutes, before finally they died down. An enormous machine of some sort crashed to the ground, battered and broken, clanking one last time before it stopped moving entirely.

A knight, wearing heavy-looking golden armor and carrying an enormous Keyblade, fell from the sky, landing on top of the machine and plunging the Keyblade into it. A second passed, and then the knight removed the Keyblade and walked away from the machine, stopping to stare out into the distance.

An image, almost like a blurry mirage, flashed over the knight for a second, and then was gone. The mechanical creature behind soon went as well, dissolving away into its component particles as a strong gust of wind came along.

There were two more knights now, walking toward the first from opposite directions and finally meeting in the middle. Each of them carried a Keyblade of their own, similar to the first one but smaller. In the field around them lay hundreds, if not thousands, of Keyblades--all stabbed blade-first into the ground, dusty and worn from battle.

There were three more Keyblades now, stabbed into the ground at odd angles. The Kingdom Key, Sora's Keyblade, was one of them... another was one that belonged to King Mickey. And the third... it was very familiar to me.

The knights saw the Keyblades, and pulled them up from their places in the sand, wielding them alongside their own.

Another figure approached from the distance, barely visible through the sandstorm. The three knights turned toward the figure, readying their Keyblades, and the other two knights were, for a second, surrounded in the same sort of blurry image that had appeared over the first.

The person approaching from the sandstorm drew closer. The sandstorm began to clear, and the man's tattered brown cloak became visible. The coat's hood was pulled up over the man's head, presumably to shield his eyes from the sand.

An image of Xehanort flashed over the man for a second, fading into a blurry mirage seconds later and quickly disappearing. And then...

The man reached up slowly, removing the hood.

And it was _me_ underneath.

* * *

I woke up suddenly, covered in sweat and breathing heavily. I heard someone down the hall cough, but other than that, the entire building was silent. There was no sign of the knights with Keyblades, and there was no sandstorm. Nothing... only the quiet of a peaceful night.

It was only a dream. _That_ dream. _Again._

This was the third night in a row that I'd had the dream. It was always the same thing--a scene of some far-off world at war, in the middle of a sandstorm. Somehow there were Keyblades there--_too many_ Keyblades. Sora's Keyblade, and Mickey's, and even my own, were among the fallen blades stabbed into the ground.

And then, walking in from somewhere far off, there would be the man in the brown coat.

But none of that bothered me. I often had strange dreams, especially after visiting new worlds I had never seen before. But this was different.

It was _my_ brown coat that he was wearing. Underneath the hood was not just a man with silver hair, but _my_ hair. _I_ was the one in the dream.

But I had never seen a world like that before. Even the desert worlds I had seen were nothing like that one--there was so little vegetation there that I don't think anything could have lived. It seemed unnatural somehow--like something had _burned_ away every last speck of life, even causing the toughest of desert grasses to grow dry and brittle.

The entire dream bothered me, now that I thought about it a little. Why had I had the same dream so many times in a row? How could any dream be exactly the same every time? Who were the three knights, and how could they wield a Keyblade--or even _two_ Keyblades? Where was that desert world, and why was I there?

It's been more than a decade since anything stuck with me like this. Not since Xehanort...

No, it couldn't be Xehanort. He was gone--_all_ of him was gone. Both his Heartless and his Nobody were destroyed in that final battle, and the events leading up to it. But who else...

No. I couldn't keep thinking about it. Not like this--I had to get help from someone else. I had made the mistake of trying to solve my problems alone once, and I wasn't about to do it again.

Sora and Kairi. They could help... I had to find them. I needed to go back home, after all these years.

I immediately put on my trusty brown coat and the black hat I had found in my recent journeys, and began to pack up all my supplies.

* * *

Later that morning, after the sun had finally risen, I headed down the stairs of the old hotel and checked myself out. I couldn't get the dream out of my head, even now--and now, one part of it stood out to me even more than before.

Why had an image of Xehanort appeared over _me_ in the dream? Xehanort had been dead for over ten years now. Or... had some part of him survived?

No, that was impossible. I had seen the death of Xemnas with my own eyes, and I had not heard even a whisper from Xehanort's Heartless since the moment that Ansem the Wise's machine overloaded. Every last bit of Xehanort was gone--Heartless and Nobody; body, soul, and heart; nothing could possibly be left of Xehanort but the memories we all had.

I nearly bumped into a woman carrying a bag of groceries, just barely catching myself before the impact. She scowled at me briefly before clutching the grocery bags a little closer to herself and hurrying away. This world was a busy one, seemingly covered in city from one end to the other. It almost seemed like this city-world was once part of something much greater--almost like the stories we had all been told in our childhood, about how the worlds were once one.

I saw an old Wanted poster taped to the side of the hotel, blowing in the wind and only held onto the brick wall by a single nail. It was a wonder that the poster had lasted this long--especially with the winds that seemed to blow almost constantly on this world. I got a quick look at the poster, noticing a rather attractive blonde-haired girl, before the last shred of the paper that held it together finally gave way to the wind and it went fluttering down the sidewalk.

I shrugged, turned my attention away from the old poster, and then quickly reached up to catch my hat before it too was blown away in the wind. The Gummi Ship parking area was still quite a ways off, so I couldn't be distracted so easily anymore.

About half an hour of walking passed, and finally I could see the enormous parking garage that held my Gummi Ship, as well as various other vehicles used by the inhabitants of the world. When I had first arrived here, the people there would always stare and gawk at me--my hair color, which had always been the oddest thing about me as a kid, was seemingly ignored in favor of rumors that I was an alien, or that I had actually come from some point in the future.

But now, after staying here for about a month, they all seemed to have gotten used to my presence. I had even made a few friends--particularly an old guy named Victor, the owner of a local pizza shop. We never had pizza back home, but after a few bites, it quickly became one of my favorite foods--the mixture of different toppings was like nothing I had ever tasted before. Many evenings of my stay on this world were spent talking to Victor and the other people working at the pizzeria, especially on nights when business was slower than usual and they didn't have anything really important to do.

I guess that's all over now, with this dream coming back every night and all of these thoughts running around in my head.

Now... It's time for me to go home.


	7. Chapter 2: Interference

**Chapter 2: Interference**

After a long time searching the enormous parking garage, I had finally found my Gummi Ship... and now, I was headed off. I was careful to pilot the ship out of the garage without hitting anyone else's vehicles, and before too long, I was leaving the world's surface.

Space travel, unlike parking garages, was something I had gotten used to during my journeys. The reduced numbers of Heartless applied to the space between worlds even more than it did to the worlds themselves, and even on long trips between worlds I had hardly seen any of the space-dwelling Heartless--or, as Sora called them, "Heartless ships."

I had to correct him on that more than once, of course--they were not actually spaceships at all, but gigantic Heartless that _looked_ like ships.

Fortunately, there didn't seem to be any of them around today--at least not on the route I was traveling. Nobody ships--which, unlike the Heartless variety, actually _were_ ships piloted by a certain kind of Nobody--still appeared every once and a while, but without Organization XIII to send them out on missions, they rarely crossed paths with anyone now.

Apparently, today was going to be the exception to that. Just as my ship came around a large asteroid, three Nobody ships came into view--all of them the usual type, with some sort of drilling weapon mounted on the front. They didn't seem to be attacking yet, but they were drifting right toward me--and the last thing I was going to do was let them get close enough to use those drills.

I aimed the guns on the front of the ship carefully, and then quickly fired off three blasts at the ships. Each of them were destroyed without much trouble, but something seemed... off. Even though they were Nobody ships, there was no sign of the silvery burst of energy that usually followed when one of the basic Nobodies was destroyed.

It was almost like those three ships had been abandoned--or something else had killed the Nobodies first. But what could do something like that?

It wasn't long before I got my answer. Something had slammed into the back of my ship--_hard._ The ship spun around from the force of the impact, nearly flying into a smaller asteroid before I was able to get it back on balance. I made a sharp turn back toward the larger asteroid I had just passed, and came face-to-face with some sort of enormous creature that was latched onto the asteroid.

Well, at least I _thought_ the part I saw first was its face--it was hard to tell. There were eyes all over, with one large one in the center, and it was gripping onto the asteroid with eight huge legs, each one big enough to crush a human easily--no wonder the ship had gotten knocked around so much.

I fired a few blasts from the ship's guns at it, but it just held up one of its legs and deflected them like they were nothing. I managed to dive away from it fast enough to avoid a second swing from one of its legs, but before I could come back around and aim for another shot, I was caught from behind by another one.

My ship went spinning again, this time flying behind the asteroid and out of the creature's view. At least, it was out of its view for a few seconds--before I could turn around, its eyes had shifted positions so that they could look behind it without moving at all. I flew by the creature again, this time keeping my distance, and blasted at it as many times as I could, but every time it would just block the hits with the flat side of one of its legs. Finally one shot got through, but it barely affected the thing--one of the smaller eyes was destroyed, leaving a miniature crater in the surface of its skin, but it didn't even flinch!

"What IS that thing?", I yelled out, not realizing that nobody was around to hear me. It couldn't be a Heartless--the Gummi Ship's guns were specially made for destroying the Heartless, and would usually take down even the larger ones after a few volleys. It didn't look like any Nobody I had ever seen, either--the color of it, a pale silvery-white, was about right, but it didn't have the familiar Nobody symbol anywhere on its body.

And it was _glowing._ No creature I had ever seen--Nobody, Heartless, or otherwise--was constantly surrounded in a dim glow like this thing was.

After a few more failed attempts at swooping in and firing on its eyes, I decided that it would be better to escape than to fight--I wasn't getting anywhere fighting, so there really wasn't any other choice. I cranked the ship's speed up as high as it could go and did one last circle around the creature's asteroid before zipping off in the opposite direction.

But the thing just wouldn't give up. Barely a minute had passed before a dot appeared on the radar screen, coming up behind me at speeds I didn't think something like that creature could _ever_ reach. I flew off at a different angle, passing into a small asteroid field, to try and throw it off, but it didn't help--the creature was now slamming asteroids out of the way in its rush to get to me.

Another swipe from one of its legs narrowly missed--I could tell from the way the ship wobbled. The thing was now right behind me, repeatedly swinging at me with its legs while somehow flying fast enough to keep up with my ship at the same time.

Another swing--and this one hit. I was almost thrown out of my seat, only staying strapped in because I had remembered to put on the seatbelt. A warning light came on, showing that one of the ship's Gummi Blocks had been dislodged by the attack and was now floating off into space somewhere. Thankfully, it was just an extra piece I had added on as a decoration--who knows what would've happened if something important got broken in mid-flight.

The ship spun uncontrollably for several seconds before I finally got it balanced again, and sped off through another asteroid field. I tried to duck behind asteroids as often as possible to throw off the creature, but nothing worked--instead of trying to follow me around corners and possibly getting thrown off track, it just plowed right through the rock and kept on going.

However, there was a good side to this--it was no longer right behind me. I pushed a button on the controls quickly, shifting the guns so that they were aimed backward toward the creature, and began to slam on the fire button like I was playing an arcade game. This slowed the creature--probably by forcing it to take some time to block the shots--but it was still coming.

I sped up suddenly, flying around several asteroids, firing the rear guns the whole way. I could see some bits of rock floating in space from where my shots had struck the asteroids, but there was still no sign that the creature had taken any real damage.

I was now entering a more familiar section of space--it wouldn't be long before I was home again. But I couldn't have that _thing_ following me home...

Suddenly, I remembered something. _The comet._

Several years back, I had heard about a comet that had been sighted in the area--I remembered Sora and Kairi mentioning that they would've liked to have had their wedding on a night when the comet was visible in the sky. They were disappointed then to find that it wouldn't come close enough to our world to be seen for years--but now, I was actually glad that it was too late.

The creature was tough, sure, but I don't think _anything_ would be able to survive a direct impact from a comet. And judging by the way it tore through asteroids, rather than trying to go around them...

_It was going to work._

I flew through space further, heading in the direction of the world that I once called home. The creature was still following me, as always--and now, it had almost caught up to me again. And I could see something bright up ahead--there wasn't anything else it could be but the comet.

I flew carefully, making sure to stay ahead of the creatue but not _too_ far ahead, while keeping an eye on the comet's path as well. I felt the vibrations of the creature's legs swinging past the sides of the ship, only missing by a few feet--if not less. A few times, the ship was hit again--I lost another couple of Gummi Blocks, including one of the guns.

And then, the comet came into view. I was heading straight into it--I had to time this just right, or who knows what would happen. The comet came within 50 feet...

And I made a sharp turn, flying away from the comet for long enough to avoid it and then coming back into my original path.

My ship was slammed again--this time not from the creature, but from a massive explosion. I turned the ship around just in time to see the creature slam into the comet head-on, causing the explosion. The comet began to crack as the two titans collided, but it kept on flying along its path, smashing the creature like a bug as it went. The creature's legs flailed around for several seconds before finally all movement stopped.

And then, the entire creature began to glow. It started out as just a brighter version of the glow that surrounded it already, and then quickly brightened until it resembled the surface of the sun... and then it went out again, and the remains of the creature crumbled into a fine white powder before disappearing entirely.

And then, I finally felt like I was ready to go home.


	8. Chapter 3: Things Have Changed

**Chapter 3: Things Have Changed**

The Gummi Ship drifted slowly to the ground, finally coming to a stop about a foot above it, just barely levitating above the ground. Several landing gears popped out, anchoring the ship to the ground, and then the engine stopped suddenly.

I stepped out of the ship, walking down the few steps leading down from the door, and felt the warm air of the islands' tropical climate for the first time in years.

I was _home._

I walked away from the small island I had parked my ship on, running along the surface of the water toward the mainland. That was a little trick I had picked up in my years traveling the worlds--it really wasn't as hard as it looked, but it could be tricky the first few times. The most important part, as with most things, was getting it just right--if I moved too slow, or didn't put enough Darkness into my feet, I would sink just like anyone else.

Fortunately, that didn't happen--and even better, nobody seemed to have seen me. It wasn't much more than half an hour before I had reached the main island's shores.

Immediately I noticed that the place looked very different than what I remembered. The beach was about the same, but just over the hill was the beginning of a sidewalk. I could see tall buildings--much taller than anything this world had ever had before--rising up from the city as I approached it.

How in the world had everything changed so quickly? When I left, the largest building was the old church that Sora and Kairi were married in, and even that was far from being in good condition. It looked like it hadn't been used in years--in fact, it had been abandoned for so long that nobody really seemed to remember what religion that church belonged to in the first place.

Now, the place looked completely different. There were paved roads--something that even most of the worlds I had visited didn't have--and hardly any of the places I recognized were still there.

And what was even stranger was that the island seemed _warmer._ It had never been a cold place, not even during winter, but now something was _different_ somehow--like the sun was brighter, or the air dryer. There was a very odd smell in the air no matter where I went, which I couldn't identify no matter how hard I tried--it was very faint, almost like it was trying to keep from being smelled.

No, wait... that's silly. A _smell_ couldn't be trying to avoid me; that didn't even make any sense.

Suddenly, I smelled something different coming from one of the alleyways. It was a familiar smell--_Darkness._ I turned down the alley, searching it to see who--or what--was lurking inside. It wasn't long before I found the source of the scent--a Shadow Heartless, apparently rummaging through the garbage.

The thing jumped at me, but it barely got a chance to get off the ground before I had summoned my Keyblade, sliced it in two, and then quickly dematerialized the weapon again.

Suddenly, there was a voice from just outside the alley.

"Nice job, sir," the voice said, "I've never seen a soldier draw their Keyblade that fast before. What's your name again?"

I stopped for a second. What was he talking about--soldiers? And somehow, he seemed to have seen Keyblades being used before...

"I asked you a question," the voice called out again, this time sounding a bit less patient. I slowly turned around and walked to the edge of the alley, where someone who appeared to be a guard was standing.

As I walked past the man, I thought of a million questions I could have asked. What did he mean by "soldiers?" The islands never had a military; had things changed _that_ much around here? And how could he have seen Keyblades in action if there hadn't been any major attacks since before I left?

Instead, I simply answered his question. "Riku."

And then I walked away from the alley, heading away down the street that seemed to lead toward the center of this new city.

What happened here? Were Sora and Kairi okay? I hadn't even seen a sign of anyone I recognized from before--was _anyone_ okay?

* * *

It took several minutes, but finally it seemed I was in the center of the city--in front of an enormous building which I assumed was where whoever was in charge lived. Not too far off was the old church that the wedding was held in--now repaired, and possibly even expanded. It seemed that it was now very much active, as there were new signs posted in front of it and the doors actually had functional locks on them now.

All of this was _very_ strange. The place didn't seem like anything horrible had happened, but still something didn't feel quite right about it. This was the place I had grown up, but it didn't _feel_ familiar at all. The strange smell was still there--in fact, it was now finally strong enough that I could pick it out from all of the other smells that drifted throughout the city--but I still couldn't identify it, no matter how hard I tried. It wasn't Darkness, but... it was definitely _something_ that wasn't there before.

Suddenly, I was surrounded. There were five armored guards in a circle around me, similar in appearance to the one I had seen before. Before I could make a move, each of them had summoned a Keyblade--they were plain-looking metal weapons, mostly coppery in color, and unlike any of the other Keyblades I had seen, they all looked exactly the same.

"What's going on?", I asked, turning around to face the guards one-by-one. At first they said nothing, and then finally one of them spoke.

"You're under arrest, Riku," the guard said, "By the order of the Queen herself, for the crime of..."

"Crime?", I interrupted, "What crime? I haven't even been here an hour! You've got the wrong guy." The guards apparently didn't agree, as each of them raised their Keyblade into a battle stance.

"Don't move," the guard said, "If you had let me finish my sentence, you would know quite well what crime you have committed. Riku... you have violated one of the highest laws of this world..."

I couldn't help but interrupt again.

"What in the world are you talking about?", I yelled, "All I've done since I got here was walk, destroy one Heartless, and then walk some more!"

"Riku," the guard said, pointing his Keyblade toward my arm, "You have violated the First Law of Gil-Neithev--and that law very obviously states that there shall be no use of Darkness for _any_ purpose."

"And the punishment," another guard said, "There's only one punishment for that kind of crime, unless you choose to surrender."

"And what would that be?", I asked.

"Death, of course."

Each of the guards readied their Keyblades for an attack, and the one that appeared to be the leader nodded to the rest of them. I quickly materialized my own Keyblade, blocking five strikes at once with a kind of speed that the guards couldn't have hoped to match. As each of the guards tried to come in from a different angle to hit me again, I blocked their swings with so much force that three of them were actually knocked backward.

They may have had Keyblades, but they certainly weren't qualified to be using them.

One small burst of Darkness later, all five of the guards were lying unconscious on the ground, their armor blackened and their Keyblades flung off into the far corners of the street. Oddly, the blades stayed solid even after their owners had lost consciousness--something was _definitely_ wrong here.

Maybe going home wasn't such a good idea after all.


	9. Chapter 4: The Underground

**Chapter 4: The Underground**

Almost immediately after fighting off the guards, I panicked.

Where could I go now, if _my own home_ wasn't even safe anymore? Where were Sora and Kairi?

I didn't have much time to stop and think about it--before I had even stepped away from the scene of my first encounter with the guards, I saw an even larger group of them rushing down the street toward me. I turned and ran, going back the way I came, but the guard I had seen in the alley was coming toward me from that direction with yet another squad of guards.

So I did what any sane person would do and ran straight up the wall of a nearby building, not stopping until I was on the roof. I would be safe there, at least for a little while--none of the guards seemed to be very powerful, regardless of their Keyblades, so it was unlikely that they could follow me.

I ran along the roof of the buildings, hopping over to the next whenever one roof ended. Every few minutes I would stop to check if the guards were still following me--and, of course, they were. I had to come down from the roofs sometime, and they seemed to realize that.

But still, I kept running. Eventually the buildings began to get shorter, and several of the guards began to swing their Keyblades toward me, trying to jump up enough to hit me from the ground. I kept running until I came to a slightly taller building, which I jumped up onto.

And then, suddenly, I was falling.

When I finally landed, I was in a dark room, probably on the top floor of the building I had fallen into. There was a square of light visible somewhere up above me--probably the hole I had fallen into.

My eyes adjusted to the dark room quickly, with more than a little bit of help from the Darkness. It was then that I realized I wasn't alone in the room--there was a short man in a suit and hat over at the other side of the room.

"Hey, kid," he said, motioning toward me, "Follow me."

I didn't really have anywhere else to go, and he seemed somewhat less threatening than the guards outside, so I went along with it, following him down the dark halls of the building. We walked down several staircases, until finally the rooms suddenly began to feel colder--like we were in a cave.

"Where are we going?", I asked.

"Someplace safe for guys like us," he said.

"What do you mean?", I asked again, still walking further and further down.

"You know," he said, "The outcasts. Guys with their own plan, that don't just sit there and take all that Light junk they're shovin' down kids' throats these days."

* * *

Sora paced back and forth, looking out the window occasionally as he went.

"Riku," he mumbled to himself, "Could he really be back, after all these years?"

He stopped in front of the large window, looking out over the city--_his_ city, which he had helped build. The islands had come so far in the five years since he had first learned of Gil-Neithev, and met with visitors from the Light itself.

But still, there was a little doubt hiding away in the back of his mind. Something just didn't _feel_ right about the way the place was now, though he couldn't figure out exactly why. He didn't doubt that Gil-Neithev and the ways of Light were a benefit to his world; but he couldn't shake that tiny speck of suspicion that was still there.

"Sora?", a familiar voice called from the next room, snapping him out of his thoughts immediately. Kairi walked into the room, wearing the long white dress that she often wore these days, and came to a stop in front of the window, standing right beside him.

"The guards just reported in," she said, "Riku attacked five of them, and now he's on the run."

"What!?", Sora blurted out suddenly, "No way! Riku wouldn't just go off and attack someone for no reason!"

Kairi's eyes flickered for a second, then stopped. She turned toward Sora, putting one hand on his shoulder and staring directly at him.

"Sora," she said, "Riku's changed." Her eyes flickered again, showing a look of anger for a second even though the rest of her face seemed calm.

Sora's vision blurred, and whatever he was thinking before suddenly left his mind. He wobbled for a second and almost fell over, just barely catching himself on one of the walls.

"Are you okay, dear?", Kairi asked. Her eyes were back to normal again, and she reached over to help her husband up.

"Yeah," he said, gripping Kairi's hand tightly, "I think I must be just catching a bad cold, or something. Maybe I should go take a nap..."

"That always helps," Kairi said, hugging Sora tightly before he walked off, "Sweet dreams!"

Her eyes flickered again, almost seeming to glow for a split-second, as she turned back toward the window and looked out over the city.

* * *

"So, what is this place?", I said, looking around at the large room we had finally arrived in. There were pool tables, a bar, a jukebox, and various other things scattered throughout the room, and music was playing. In a few places, the cave walls had been painted over with graffiti, and there were boxes of all shapes and sizes piled up in the corners of the room.

"We call it 'The Underground,'" the man in the suit said, "It's where people go when they're sick and tired of those damn Laws of Gil-Neithev, or whatever the surface-dwellers are pushing on us all the time now."

"So everyone here," I said, "They've all had trouble with the guards, like me?"

"Not everyone," he answered, "Some of 'em came down here back when the city was first goin' up, before the guards started cracking down on Darkness, and they started the place up for the rest of us. Now, we get all kinds of people down here."

"Even criminals?"

"We're _all_ criminals, according to those damn Light fanatics. Don't even have to hurt anyone--just readin' a damn book is enough to get ya thrown in jail now, if it's a book they don't like. And when ya go to their jail... ya don't come back."

"How come? What do they _do_ to people in jail now?"

"Nobody knows," the man said, turning away, "None of 'em that snuck in ever came back to tell us."


	10. Chapter 5: Escape Plan

**Chapter 5: Escape Plan**

I stayed in the Underground for several days, learning how those who had been labeled "evil" by the city managed to live. They had provided me with a place to sleep and a supply of food, so it wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. In fact, it almost seemed more like a second city altogether, rather than a group of refugees from the one above.

I learned that, in order to protect their identities in case they were infiltrated by spies from above, everyone here made up a "codename" for themselves, and went by that name rather than their real one as long as they were there. The man who had led me here went by the name "Alberto," though not everyone chose such normal-sounding names.

I walked over to the bar and sat down, ordering one of the few non-alcoholic drinks they served. Apparently, the rulers of the city had banned alcohol along with Darkness--otherwise, there wouldn't be so much of it down here, where those laws didn't apply.

Not too long after sitting down and recieving my drink, the bartender came over and asked me what would normally be a basic question.

"So, what's your name?"

I almost told him my real name, but then I remembered what Alberto had told me--I had to think up a "codename" so that nobody would know who I was in case there were spies from aboveground.

This would be especially important for me, since I was already being chased by the guards--the last thing I needed was someone knowing where I had ended up.

So, turning to face the bartender, I let the first name that popped into my head come out.

"Ansem."

* * *

A shock went through the entire castle, like an earthquake but somehow _different._ The typical earthquake would never be able to move the foundations of Castle Oblivion--but this, whatever it was, _did_--and everyone inside the massive building could feel it.

"What in the world?", Zexion yelled, nearly falling over from the shock. If not for the fact that the tables in Vexen's lab were bolted onto the floor, he probably would have gone flying across the room--but fortunately, he was able to catch the edge of the table at the last second.

"This is no earthquake," Lexaeus said quietly. He was the only one in the room still standing, but it was obvious that even he was struggling to resist the shock. Vexen was hunched over, gripping onto one of the now-empty cloning pods, and the green-haired girl had fallen down and was lying on the floor up against one of the walls, though she was still conscious.

Nearly a minute passed, and then finally the shockwaves began to weaken enough for everyone to stand up straight again. Several seconds later, they had stopped altogether, but there was now a strange smell spreading throughout the castle from somewhere far below.

"That cave," Zexion muttered, "Something's happened in that cave below the castle." He walked out of the room, followed by Lexaeus, and headed toward the boarded-up passage leading downward to the next floor.

But it wasn't boarded up now--the boards had been torn into splinters and thrown aside, exposing a set of worn-down stone steps leading into the caves beneath the castle.

And there were heavy, metallic footsteps approaching from somewhere deep inside the caves.

The footsteps began to come closer, and now seemed to be moving faster. Of the whole group, only Zexion said anything.

"This is _not good._"

* * *

I sat down around the round, wooden table, looking around at the others who were already sitting. Alberto was there, as well as several others that I didn't recognize--I hadn't seen them around at all during my several days in the Underground.

Directly to my left was a much older man, with hardly any hair left except for his gray moustache and beard. On my right was Alberto, who was wearing the same suit and hat that he had when we first met--or at least a suit and hat that looked the same. Sitting in the middle of the table were two women, one of which was thin, blonde and wearing dark sunglasses. The other was a larger woman, with dark brown hair, who was fiddling with a pen and a small notebook.

On the opposite end of the table from me were three more men, one of which was very young--possibly even younger than me. He had messy brown hair and wasn't wearing a shirt, which seemed a little strange considering how cold it was down here. The other two were middle-aged; one of them wore glasses and a suit along with something that seemed to be a headband, and the other had reddish-brown hair that stuck forward in a pompadour.

A few seconds of silence passed before Alberto spoke up, introducing me to the rest of the group--using the name Ansem, which I had chosen as my "codename," instead of my real one, of course. Everyone looked at me for a second, before Alberto nodded to them slightly, signaling that they could now introduce themselves as well.

"Call me the Blue Turtle," the balding man with the moustache said, standing up and pointing to a tattoo of some sort of large, blue-skinned turtle that he had on his upper arm. He then sat down, nodding to the thin, blonde girl.

"Alekia," she said, just looking over toward me rather than taking the time to stand up. She lowered her sunglasses for a second, and I noticed for the first time that one of her eyes was artificial--there was a metallic plate with a glowing red sensor of some sort replacing the actual eye. So _that's_ why she wore those sunglasses all the time.

"You can call me Sphere," the shirtless young man said, scratching his head for a second before turning toward the next person on the table and tapping him on the shoulder.

"Noob," the man with the glasses and headband said, "And I don't like being tapped on the shoulder, so don't try it." He glared at Sphere for a second before turning to the next man and tapping _him_ on the shoulder.

"Dan," he said, "And I don't like being tapped on the shoulder _either._" Noob jumped a little, apparently dodging a kick coming from under the table. Dan then nodded toward the larger woman.

"Pwibby," she said, not even looking up from whatever she was doing in the notebook.

"And I, of course, am Alberto," said Alberto, standing up and looking around the table again. Apparently he was a leader of sorts in the Underground, as everyone else remained seated.

"Now, as you guys all know," he continued, "Our visitor, Ansem, is on the run from those Light fanatics up above. We've managed to hide him from them for this long, but... it looks like we're gonna have to get him outta here before too long."

"Yes," said Alekia, standing up for the first time, "They've probably figured out that he's down here already, and it seems he's more important to them than the average criminal. They'll be looking for a way to get down here."

"We've already sealed up the entrance you brought him in here from, Alberto," said the man known as the Blue Turtle, "But those guys aren't stupid. Foolish, perhaps, but they know how to find someone if they want them badly enough."

"So, then, how're we gonna sneak him out of here?", Dan asked, looking over at the old man, "Those guards are gonna be all over every abandoned building in the city, now that they know he ended up in here through one. That's at least half of our secret entrances out the door right there."

"There's always another way," Pwibby said, speaking up for the first time, "The average guard doesn't have the power to detect the use of Darkness. If we get him back to his Gummi Ship using the Dark Passage, he'll be able to escape before they break in here looking for him."

"Sounds like a plan," Alberto said, "Now, how many of you guys can actually open the Dark Passage, again?"

Everyone starting laughing, filling the room with everything from quiet snickering to full-blown laughter. Apparently, everyone in the room already knew how to use the Darkness fairly well--asking them if they could open the Dark Passage was like asking them if they knew how to walk.

It looked like this escape plan was going to work.


	11. Chapter 6: The First Wave

**Chapter 6: The First Wave**

Suddenly, there was a crash somewhere in the distance, like a door being kicked down and falling flat on the stone floor. It was followed by raised voices, and the sounds of metal clashing against stone--and against bodies.

The guards had entered the Underground.

"Ansem!", Alberto said, turning toward me, "Hide in the secret chamber under the table! We'll take care of these guys--we just can't let 'em see ya!" I immediately rolled under the table, feeling around for some kind of lever to open the secret chamber. It wasn't long before I found it--there was a loose stone next to one of the table's legs, and when it was moved even slightly, a trap door opened below me.

The chamber was very small, about half the size of a typical bathroom. It wasn't very far below the floor of the room above, so fortunately I could still see what was going on outside from my position.

Alberto took off his hat and held it out to his side for a second, causing it to be surrounded by an aura of Darkness. He threw the hat like a boomerang, and it ricocheted off of the guards' armor, knocking several of them into the walls and stunning them.

The Blue Turtle caught a Keyblade in mid-swing with his bare hands, twisting the weapon around so hard that I could actually hear the guard's arms breaking. Another guard came toward him, but the old man just kicked the disabled guard into him, knocking both of them to the ground.

One of the guards swung his Keyblade toward Dan, only to have it be snatched out of his hands by Sphere, who quickly bashed the guard in the head with it. As the guard fell to the floor, Sphere tossed the Keyblade to the ground, smacking the already-down guard once again and ensuring that he wouldn't get up for a very long time.

Noob was hit by several Keyblade strikes, knocking him into a wall, but was saved when Pwibby created a Darkness shield around him that knocked the guards backward as they tried to hit him again. Before the guards could come back to attack either of them, Pwibby had compressed the shield into a small ball of Darkness and flung it toward the guards like a grenade--the blast send the guards flying, even knocking off some of their armor.

Several guards came rushing toward Alekia, who stood completely still the entire time. Just as the guards got close enough to swing at her with their Keyblades, they were all knocked down by a powerful blast of Darkness that she had been charging up the whole time, sending many Keyblades clattering to the floor. They were soon followed by their wielders, who ended up in a charred pile.

Yet more guards swarmed into the room, only to be bowled over when the Blue Turtle lifted up several of the defeated guards from the floor and tossed them at the oncoming group. It wasn't long before the entire floor was covered with unconscious guards and the coppery-colored Keyblades that they had wielded.

I climbed out of the small chamber underneath the table, careful not to knock it over, and then crawled back out from under it. Everyone else brushed themselves off, with Noob and several others examining their wounds.

And then I heard the footsteps of yet more guards approaching.

"Ansem," Alberto said, turning toward me while charging his hat with Darkness once again, "Get outta here, now! We'll be able to fight them off ourselves, but they'll never stop coming as long as they think you're still in here!"

"But... but I," I stuttered, "I can't open the Dark Passage anymore. I haven't been able to since..."

"Don't worry about that!", Alberto yelled, throwing his hat down the hall to slow down the approaching guards, "Pwibby, open the Dark Passage for him! We've gotta get this guy outta here before they send in anything more than the same ol' thugs!"

Pwibby held up one hand and opened one of the familar, purplish-black portals, while everyone else kept on fighting the guards. They paused and backed up just long enough to let the guards see that I was leaving, and then they started fighting once again.

I looked back one more time, seeing a massive explosion of dark energy as Alekia blew away another wave of guards, and then jumped through the portal as fast as I could.

* * *

"It's too late," Kairi said, looking out over the city from her window, "Riku has escaped..."

Sora walked in, stopping to stand next to his wife and putting his arm around her waist. The two of them looked at each other for a few seconds, before Sora finally said something.

"What's happening with Riku?", he asked, "I thought I heard you say something about him just now."

"Riku... He's gone," Kairi answered, "That gang of criminals, in the Underground... they opened a portal to the Dark Passage and pushed him through it. It's hard to tell where he is now..."

"A gang? So that means," Sora asked, looking confused, "There's... organized crime? Here?"

"Yes," Kairi said, walking away from Sora for a second and leaving his arm hanging in the air where she was standing. She paced back and forth for a second, before suddenly coming to a stop, her eyes flickering.

"Yes... the brightest light casts the darkest shadow," she said, her eyes glowing slightly and her voice crackling back and forth between her usual voice and another--a much deeper voice, one that seemed to echo throughout the room.

"But no shadow can withstand our light."

Sora was about to say something when he was suddenly caught in a big hug from his wife, and his mind went blank yet again.

"What was that?", she asked, still hugging him tightly. Her voice had returned to normal now, and Sora had already forgotten her odd outburst only seconds earlier.

"Um... I dunno," he stuttered, trying to remember what he was going to say but failing miserably, "I guess I forgot what I was going to say again."

Kairi giggled and hugged Sora again, knocking him flat onto the floor. "You're always forgetting things these days, aren't you? Silly Sora..."

* * *

Three knights, each wearing heavy-looking armor that covered every inch of their bodies, walked up the stone staircase that led into the lowest floors of Castle Oblivion.

"Our sleep in death has ended," the tallest of the three said with a deep voice, "Praise be to Gil-Neithev!"

The three stopped, with the other two of them repeating his last statement--_"Praise be to Gil-Neithev!"_ One of them was obviously female, as both the voice and the shape of her armor revealed. The other, shorter than the first but with a similarly-designed suit of armor, was another man--but with a higher-pitched voice that had a slightly raspy edge to it.

Only seconds passed before the three of them had climbed the entire staircase and emerged in the twelfth basement of Castle Oblivion, stepping up out of an opening that was bordered by splintered wood and twisted nails that once held the boards in place.

The three looked throughout the room, noticing the familiar white walls that were now adorned with flowery decorations that hadn't been there before. The walls seemed to be lit up, and provided enough light to fill the entire hallway. Oddly enough, the place seemed to still be inhabited--it appeared to have been cleaned recently.

"What a disappointment," the tallest of the knights said, "Gil-Neithev's plague was meant to wipe away the Darkness-tainted scum of this place, but it seems that some of them are still here."

"Not exactly," Lexaeus said, summoning his tomahawk. The three knights turned toward the direction of this unfamiliar voice, summoning weapons of their own--three Keyblades, each of which was large and metallic-looking.

"Ah," the female knight said, looking over Lexaeus, Vexen, and Zexion carefully, "Nobodies. Empty shells, without emotions or even true existence of their own... nothing but byproducts of a greedy Heartless' meal."

"We should have known that your kind would end up here," the tallest knight said, lifting his Keyblade up onto his shoulder, "This place has long been saturated with a sort of corrupted Light that acts as a beacon for empty beings like yourselves."

"Fools," Vexen mumbled to himself, "After all those years you spent dead, I would've hoped that you'd at least learn something."

The three knights stood there for what seemed like forever before they all shrugged, saying various things under their breath and turning away from the three Nobodies that stood before them. They walked away down the hall a few feet, and then stopped.

And then there was a bright flash of light which shaped itself into a door so large that it reached from the floor to the celing, reflecting light off of the white walls and making it nearly impossible for anyone to see.

The knights walked through the glowing door, all three of them passing through the bright light at the same time. And then they disappeared, followed shortly afterward by the door itself.


	12. Chapter 7: King Mickey

**Chapter 7: King Mickey**

I flew out of the other end of the Dark Passage, landing almost face-first in the sand of the small island where my Gummi Ship was parked. Fortunately, the guards hadn't found it yet--there weren't even any footprints in the sand, other than my own.

I climbed into the ship as quickly as possible, and sped off away from the small world that I once called home.

I couldn't help but look back as I left the planet's atmosphere, seeing the full expanse of the city that now covered most of the world's landmass... and wondering if my world would ever be the place I had grown up with again.

* * *

Roxas landed with both feet on the ground, his two Keyblades held out in his familiar battle stance, as the strange, insect-like creatures began to glow brightly before finally dissolving away.

"What _were_ those things?", a young girl asked, gripping onto her mother and staring at the street where a battle had just taken place. The mother was frozen in fear, and just kept staring, her mouth hanging open a little.

"That's the last of them," Roxas said, slipping the two Keyblades into the straps across his back, "Until the next time, anyway." He began to walk away down the street, checking on various townspeople as he went.

Roxas hadn't suspected the strange, glowing creatures at first--when he had first seen them, they only attacked the few remaining Heartless and Nobodies that occasionally wandered into town; when he approached them, they simply shrieked and ran away. But now, something had changed--they were coming into the town further now, and attacking anything that moved.

And every time they came, their numbers seemed to increase.

He didn't mind his new job, protecting Twilight Town from anyone or anything that would threaten it--but it seemed that it was going to get a lot harder before too long. Maybe even too hard for him to do it alone.

"Good thing I'm never really alone," he said to himself, glancing at his two Keyblades for a second and thinking of two friends who had been long lost to him.

First was Axel, the one who had found him on the street one day and brought him into Organization XIII. Of the entire group, Axel was the only one Roxas still had clear memories of--apparently, whatever had caused him to suddenly remember much of his past had not yet restored memories of any other members of the Organization. He was a good friend to Roxas, and something of a mentor as well--teaching him how to defend himself, among many other things.

Second was Naminé, a mysterious young girl that he only had vague memories of. Somehow, she stood out more than almost anyone else in his memory--yet he could hardly remember anything about her, beyond her appearance and a few basic details. He wasn't sure exactly what Naminé's significance was in his past, but he somehow knew she was important--so he held on to what few memories were left.

It seemed like hardly any time had passed at all before Roxas was standing in front of his house. It was once just an abandoned building, but Roxas had cleaned it up a little and made it closer to the house he remembered--complete with that funny little fishbowl with fake, plastic fish floating inside.

After a long day of defending the city, it felt good to be home.

* * *

The Gummi Ship drifted into the machine-filled room, passing under several mouse-head banners on the way in and finally slowing to a stop and landing on the slightly-raised platform on the floor.

I had arrived on the world ruled by King Mickey, one of the smallest worlds I had ever visited... yet perhaps one of the safest as well. Mickey wasn't quite as powerful as Sora or I, but he certainly wasn't weak in any sense--if not for his help, the battle to save the worlds from Xehanort's Heartless would have been lost. The mouse King also helped me fight off Xehanort's control afterward, and even helped in the battles against Organization XIII.

At first, I was worried that whatever had gotten into the people back home had reached this world as well--that smell, which seemed oddly familiar even though I had never noticed it before, was in the air here, as well... the only difference was that it wasn't nearly as strong here.

All those fears vanished as I walked up the hallway leading toward Mickey's throne, seeing the various residents of the castle hurrying around and going on with their lives as normal--there were no armored guards with Keyblades, no new buildings. It almost seemed that nothing had changed since I visited this world five years ago.

It was a welcome sight in a universe where everything else _had_ changed.

Before too long, I reached the end of the hall and entered King Mickey's throne room. As always, the throne didn't quite seem to match the room--I guess it had to be adjusted to the King's size, so it was pretty small, but it still seemed almost silly to have that tiny little throne at the end of such an enormous room.

"Your Majesty!", I said, running up to his throne almost like I was a kid again, and this was my first visit. The King hopped down from his throne as I approached, walking over to meet me in mid-run with a hug that was surprisingly strong for his size.

"Riku!", he said in his usual cheerful voice, "I haven't seen you in ages! Where've ya been?" Just talking to the King seemed to put me in a good mood--he was the only one I'd seen in days that wasn't either trying to kill me or trying to hide me from the people who were trying to kill me.

"I've been pretty busy lately," I said, not quite lying but not really wanting to just blurt out what had happened, "Anyway... I need to talk to you about something important. Do you have any rooms around here with a little more privacy?"

"Well, sure," he said, walking over toward a small door on one side of the room, "This room should do, but... what's got you worrried so much?"

He always was good at reading people--well, most of the time anyway. Just one look at me and he could tell that I was worrying about something--actually, a whole lot of "somethings." But I couldn't risk having the wrong people hear me--what if there were spies around?

No, wait. That's silly--this world hadn't been touched by whatever it was that had messed up the islands so badly. There wasn't anything to worry about... but it was still better to be safe.

"What's wrong?", Mickey said, noticing that I hadn't said anything ever since we got into the room, "I thought you said you wanted to talk about somethin'?"

"Yeah," I said, sitting down on the just-a-bit-too-small chair, "I just got distracted for a second there... thinking about stuff." I took off my hat and coat, hanging the coat on the back of the chair and setting the hat down on the table.

"You miss Sora and Kairi, don't you?", he asked, almost as if reading my mind.

"Yeah."

"Well, it's been a while since I heard from those two," he said, searching around in his pockets for something. Eventually he found what he was looking for, and pulled it out--it looked like a piece of paper, probably some sort of invitation. He looked at it for a few seconds before he spoke again.

"Oh, I remember now!", he said, standing up from the chair suddenly, "Sora's a King now! They invited me to the crowning ceremony a couple years ago, but I wasn't able to go. Gee, I must've had this invitation right here in my pocket for years!"

Now that I had a closer look, I noticed that the invitation _did_ look pretty old--it also looked like it had been through more than one wash, as it was faded and crinkled on the edges. I couldn't help but start laughing at the thought that the King, who always seemed to get things before everyone else, had left the invitation in his pocket for _years._ Apparently, he thought it was pretty funny too, and joined in laughing soon afterward.

A few minutes passed, and finally both of us had stopped laughing. Mickey got back into his seat and waited until the last few giggles had subsided.

"So, what was it you wanted to talk about again?", he asked, looking up across the table toward me.

"I think something terrible is about to happen," I said, "But the problem is, I'm not sure _what..._ it can't be the Heartless or Nobodies again, but..."

"I know," Mickey said, suddenly taking on a more serious tone of voice, "I've felt something coming, too. A new threat to the worlds... but this time, it's not from the Darkness."

"That's what I was afraid of," I said, "We've all gotten used to fighting the forces of the Dark... but what do we do when something else comes along?"

"We do what we can," the King said, halfway standing up on the table, "And never give up."


	13. Chapter 8: Clues

**Chapter 8: Clues**

Night had fallen over the Destiny Islands, but it was hard to tell for the massive glowing door that had appeared in the sky overhead. The entire city was illuminated, giving the place the appearance of early morning rather than midnight--and then, as quickly as it came, the light was gone.

Three armored figures drifted downward from the door, still glowing, and landed in the sand lightly. They stood perfectly still for several minutes, looking around at their surroundings, and there was a sniffing sound from within their helmets, as if they were breathing in deeply.

"Yes," the tallest of the knights said, "Gil-Neithev's influence runs deep on this world. It seems our arrival will be less bloody than I had first expected."

The others only nodded, before the three of them all began to slowly walk off of the beach they had arrived on and toward the center of the city.

As the knights disappeared in the distance, two figures emerged from their hiding spots in the alley near the edge of the city.

"Now _this_ is bad news," Alberto said, adjusting his hat nervously as he walked. He quickly headed toward an open door in a nearby building, followed by a thin girl with a strange red light shining from underneath one lens of her sunglasses.

"Bad news indeed," Alekia said, "But Ansem's the one Gil-Neithev was really after. If we hadn't gotten him off of this world already, those knights probably would have killed us already."

"What?", Alberto said, suddenly stopping, "You mean those guys _saw_ us!? But we were down an alley, behind a friggin' Dumpster! How..."

"They're on an entirely different level from the average guard," the girl said, reaching up and fiddling with the controls of her artificial eye for a second before continuing.

"So saturated in Light that they could _see_ the Darkness around us--even at night."

Alberto seemed to shiver for a second at the thought. "So that means..."

"It's impossible for us to hide from them forever."

* * *

_"Roxas..."_

The young girl's voice seemed to echo in Roxas' ears for minutes after he awakened, even as her image faded out of his mind.

"Naminé," he said to himself, barely awake and half-stumbling to get out of his bed. This was the third night in a row that he had dreamt of the girl, even though he hardly remembered her at all.

No, wait. That wasn't right--he _did_ remember her. He even remembered his days spent with her in Castle Oblivion, suggesting things for her to draw. He remembered the results of those pictures--Larxene with tentacles replacing her arms and legs, holding a helpless pizza-delivery boy down onto a table; a grinning Xemnas taking a big bite out of a Heartless' rear end; Marluxia, as a girl, in a frilly pink dress...

Roxas froze. Just days before, he had no memory of any of those people--but now he remembered them well enough to recall their names, what they looked like, and even the specific reasons why each of those pictures were so funny. He could even remember Naminé giggling as she saw the results of his ideas converted to paper form.

"Well, that's really weird," he mumbled, falling back onto the bed with a soft thump and quickly drifting back to sleep.

* * *

Zexion paced back and forth in the hallway, thinking about what was happening lately. The three knights that had appeared before bothered him the most--were they the same warriors that Xehanort had killed hundreds of years earlier?

Were they alive, dead, or somewhere in between? Had they been sleeping in those coffins all these years, frozen in time... or had Gil-Neithev actually brought them back to life?

None of those questions really mattered, of course. Zexion could tell that, no matter what their origin truly was, they were _incredibly_ powerful. The tallest of the three seemed to be easily stronger than even Lexaeus--and the others, though a bit less than a match for the Organization's strongest surviving member, weren't lacking in power, either.

And with the three of them fighting together... he doubted that even Xemnas could have defeated them.

"Lexaeus," he said, noticing that the large man had finished his daily workout, "We need to do something about this, and soon."

"Yes," Lexaeus said, "Gil-Neithev's power is building with every day that passes. If we don't move against the forces of Light soon, all will be lost." He stopped for a second and cracked his neck.

"We'll need to make sure everyone's ready first," Zexion said, "Especially the girl... she hasn't had any practice with that Keyblade of hers in almost twenty years now."

"I'll be the one to train the girl's combat skills, then," Lexaeus said, stopping in front of Vexen's door before continuing.

"After all, we wouldn't want her ending up fighting like you or Vexen, right?"

* * *

I talked with Mickey for hours, catching up on the recent events throughout the worlds that I hadn't visited. Besides Sora becoming a king and the unexplainable changes to the Destiny Islands, a lot had happened while I was gone.

Simba had a daughter, who was now a fully-grown lioness. A tribe of outcast lions, the immediate family of Scar himself, had attempted a takeover, but in the end they were defeated.

Aladdin had reunited with his father, discovered an ancient treasure that turned everything it touched to solid gold, and managed to outwit the legendary Forty Thieves.

The Beast and his subjects had regained their original forms, and now lived happily with Belle in their castle.

Traverse Town apparently had ceased to exist, the bits of destroyed worlds that composed it returning to the places they had originally come from.

There were so many changes that I couldn't possibly remember them all--ten years, apparently, was a lot longer than it seemed. But there was one thing that just didn't make sense--the changes to the other worlds had mostly been changes for the better, but Destiny Islands had become a horrible place to live. What was happening? Would it spread to other worlds as well?

"Mickey," I said, turning toward the small King again, "What do you think is causing all the problems back home?"

"Well," he said, seeming unsure of himself for the first time since I had arrived, "I don't know." He hopped off of the chair, pacing back and forth in the room and seeming to be concentrating on something.

"Wait a second--you said the guards mentioned a 'Gil-Neithev,' or somethin' like that, right?"

"Yeah, I figured it was just some kind of weird religion... you've heard of it?"

"I sure have," he said, hopping back up onto his chair quickly, "When I was younger, me and Donald both learned some magic from Master Yen Sid. One time, when the Master wasn't home, Donald got into some of his old books and stuff..."

"And one of them said something about Gil-Neithev?"

"Yeah... but before we could really check it out, Yen Sid came back home and took the books away. He never did like us kids playing around with his stuff while he was gone..."

"Yen Sid," I mumbled to myself, "So he knows something about this... maybe he can help us somehow."

"Well, it couldn't hurt to ask," Mickey said, hopping off of his chair again.

Not long afterward, the King and I left the small room, heading back to the Gummi Ship hangar. Neither of us really knew if the old wizard would be able to help us or not--but, like Mickey said, it couldn't hurt to ask...

...could it?


	14. Chapter 9: Michiko

**Chapter 9: Michiko**

Two old wizards walked across the vast field of tall grass. One was an old man in a red, hooded cloak, with only his moustache visible through the darkness of the cloak's hood. He carried a long staff, using it to shove the grass aside as he walked. The other was a relatively normal-looking old woman, walking with a cane and pushing the grass aside with her free hand.

"Yen Sid _is_ the last of our kind, isn't he?", the old man asked, looking off into the distance as he continued to walk.

"Yes," the old woman replied, shoving more grass out of the way, "Ever since Zande died, it's just been the three of us."

"Hmm... so Zande _is_ dead, then," the old man said, "That's rather odd. If I remember correctly, it was only eleven years ago that someone found the Keyblade he had crafted..."

"Maybe the Keyblade can outlive its creator after all?"

"One can only hope. There's no doubt that Gil-Neithev will come to get rid of the rest of us before too long."

The two stopped, looking up at a strange piece of land floating a good hundred feet up in the air, above what appeared to be a bottomless pit. There were train tracks leading up to it, along with a tunnel that seemed like it should be emerging from a hill, but wasn't.

"An illusion," the old man mumbled, "And quite a powerful one at that. It looks like Yen Sid must be home."

"This shouldn't take more than a minute to get rid of," the old woman said, beginning to mumble magic words to herself shortly afterward. A blue glow surrounded her hands, seeping into them slowly. For a second, her skin turned blue, and her normal hands shifted to larger, claw-tipped ones.

There was a flash of various blues and purples, and then her hands returned to normal once again. Slowly, the illusion around this piece of land began to fade away. What was once a floating island became a flat area at the top of a hill; the bottomless pit below it was now likely to be deep underground, as the formerly-invisible hill had appeared over it. The train tunnel now lead into some more hills, as it should have to begin with.

After about a minute's time, the entire landscape had faded back to normal and the illusion was broken.

"Old Yen's getting rusty," the old woman said, brushing off her hands a few times and chuckling before grabbing her cane again and beginning the long walk up the hill.

* * *

Mickey and I had traveled for hours in space, but still there was no sign of any passage to Twilight Town's world, where Yen Sid's tower was located.

"What's going on?", I said, scanning the ship's maps for a second, "I know Sora was able to reach Twilight Town by Gummi Ship, so... how the heck did he do it?"

Mickey shuffled through some papers he had been carrying, some of which were maps of Gummi Ship routes. There were others that covered the three "Worlds"--that of Light, which we were currently in; the World of Darkness, which was the location of Organization XIII's primary base as well as Kingdom Hearts itself; and the Twilight or In-Between World--our destination.

"Found anything in there yet?", I asked, looking over the King's shoulder to see what he was reading. The paper he had stopped on at the moment was an old one, looking as if it was written not long after the techniques used to make Gummi Ships were first discovered--or possibly even _before._

"Well, if I read this right," he said, not looking up from the paper, "It says we have to get going on a certain path, and then just keep going straight until we're there."

"Something doesn't sound quite right about that," I said, "Do you think it'll work?"

"We'll have to try," Mickey said, putting away all the papers except for the one he was reading, "If we want to get to the Twilight World safely, it might be the only way to go."

* * *

"So, Lexaeus," Zexion said, "How goes the girl's training?"

"Michiko," the girl said as she came around the corner of the hallway, "My name is Michiko."

"Hmm... Michiko, then. What changed your mind about not telling us your name?"

"I finally decided that I can trust you guys," she said, wiping some sweat-soaked strands of hair away from her eyes, "That, and I got tired of everyone calling me 'the girl' all the time."

"I suspected that was part of the reason," Zexion said, leaning up against the wall next to where Lexaeus was already standing.

Several minutes passed, with Michiko resting from her training and Lexaeus monitoring her condition, before the large man finally said something else.

"Zexion," you said, "You wanted to know how the training was going, correct?"

"Yes, about that," the shorter man answered, "She seems tired now, but I'd be more surprised if someone _wasn't_ tired after training with someone as strong as you."

"She's doing well," Lexaeus said, "Her basic Keyblade techniques are already well beyond the level of any other Keyblade wielder we've encountered."

"That sounds like good news. So, she won't need as much training as we thought?"

"Unfortunately, she may actually end up needing _more_ training than we originally predicted."

"What!? Why?"

"Though her basic techniques are nearly flawless already... she hasn't yet mastered anything more advanced."

"Hmm... that's strange. Has she shown any signs of the ability to use powers other than the Keyblade yet? After all, she is a Nobody now."

"None that I've seen," Lexaeus said, "Though her strength is incredible for her size. I suspect that her Nobody powers may have some part in that."

"So her power is not that of directing some force outward, but of supercharging those within her own body," Zexion said, putting his hand to his chin and pacing back and forth.

"Amazing, isn't it? With enough training, she may even be able to surpass _my_ strength--thanks to that Keyblade of hers."

Michiko just smiled as she sat down on the white floor, leaning her head back against the wall. She had once tried to kill these people--but that was in the past, and things had changed. _She_ had changed. She was no longer the foolish little girl who had obtained a Keyblade in her dreams and, overwhelmed by her newfound power, sought out the strongest opponents she could find.

"She's grown up since then," Lexaeus said, seemingly reading the girl's mind.


	15. Chapter 10: The Chasers Gather

**Chapter 10: The Chasers Gather**

The old wizard knocked on the door twice with his staff, then stood still, waiting for an answer. Yen Sid was certainly somewhere inside the tower, but for whatever reason he wasn't coming to the door.

"Yen Sid!", the old woman called to an upstairs window, "Get down here!"

Several minutes passed, and there was still no answer from inside the tower.

"Hmm," the wizard said, "Looks like we'll have to let ourselves in, then."

He raised one hand, pointing it toward the door, and began chanting something in a low voice. Several seconds later, he raised his staff in the air and pointing it at the door as well. And then, he stopped all movement, aiming his staff directly toward the door and saying one word.

"_Break._"

A thin beam of grayish light formed between the staff and the door, growing larger, brighter, and "grayer" with every moment that passed. The door, too, began to turn gray--it was being transformed into stone bit-by-bit. And then, with one quick swing of the staff, the door shattered, sending shards of rock everywhere.

The two wizards brushed the dust and rock fragments off of their clothes, waiting for the debris to clear from the air before continuing.

"Not even a single minor curse or seal guarding his front door," the old woman said, shaking her head, "He's **really** getting rusty."

* * *

"Well, I don't see Twilight Town's world yet," I said, "But there's definitely _something_ up ahead."

Unfortunately, I couldn't tell what it was exactly--from this far away, it seemed to be some sort of platform floating in space, with something else attached. Whatever it was that was ontop of the platform was barely visible, at least from this distance.

"If that's what I think it is, then we're going the right way," Mickey said, flipping through some papers. He stopped on a page with a rough sketch of an enormous door, standing on a platform of rock in the middle of empty space.

"The Door to Darkness!?", I said, "But... how is _that_ going to help us get to Twilight Town?"

"Look again," Mickey said, pointing to the picture and the words below it and running his finger over them.

It was then that I noticed the differences between the door I had seen before and the one in the picture--the Door to Darkness was made of something similar to stone, only colored white; but this new door seemed to be made of some kind of translucent blue crystal.

"So this isn't the Door to Darkness after all," I said, watching the crystalline door's platform approaching through the ship's front window, "Not the Door to Darkness, but... a Door to Twilight?"

Our Gummi Ship approached the door, finding that--fortunately for us--it was already wide open. On the other side, there was nothing but more empty space and another platform--this one made of some sort of white stone which seemed to glow slightly as we approached it. And then, as we finally passed through the door, our surroundings changed.

A planet, easily a hundred times larger than any of the worlds I had visited, became visible in the distance, orbited by a single small moon.

It was then that I knew for sure that we had arrived in the World of Twilight; the World In-Between, not filled with Darkness or Light but of a combination of the two forces. I had been here before--both during my escape from Castle Oblivion and throughout much of the year that followed--but I had never seen it from space, as I had mostly traveled on foot or through the Dark Passage then.

It was a _much_ larger world than I had expected, to say the least.

* * *

The three wizards gathered around a large table, sitting down slowly and carefully watching each other as they went.

"Yen Sid," the red-cloaked wizard said, "Still the best decorator of the group, I see. It's been a long time, but you still haven't lost your touch."

"Hmph," the old woman said, rolling her eyes, "Hasn't lost his touch? A hundred years ago it would've taken an army to get in here. Now it doesn't take much more than two washed-out old wizards and a few basic spells."

"Calm down, Unne," the old wizard said, turning toward her, "If you remember, Yen Sid was the only one of us besides Zande who refused to take part in Archmage Noah's experiment all those years ago. It's no surprise that he's showing some effects of age."

"Indeed," the tallest of the three wizards spoke up, "You are correct that I have aged since those ancient times when we were all young. What you do not know is that I have since then surpassed our old master's magical prowess."

"You've got to be kidding me," Unne said, "That illusion you had up outside was _nothing_--I'd bet my cane that even your silly pupil, Ronald or whatever his name was, could even see through _that._"

Yen Sid stood up from his seat suddenly, staring at the two other wizards with a look that would cause anyone else to turn away.

"That illusion was only a simple trick to scare away those annoying children from Twilight Town," he said, continuing to stare at the others, "The full extent of my power is not something to be wasted on such things."

The room was silent for a few minutes before Yen Sid finally sat back down, turning his gaze away from the others for a second to adjust his hat.

"So," he said, "What brings you here after so many years, Dorga and Unne?"

"I'm sure you're well aware of this already," Dorga said, "But a new threat to all of existence is building in the World of Light."

"And you," Unne added, "Have done _nothing_ to fight it. In fact, you may have even sped up the process by aiding in Organization XIII's downfall."

"Organization XIII was a threat to this world and others," Yen Sid said, "I had no choice but to help the Keybearer destroy them."

"A threat to the world? And what, exactly, were they doing that was so harmful to this world, or _any_ world for that matter?"

"Their plan included sending Heartless to many worlds in order for the Keybearer to destroy them and send their hearts to Kingdom Hearts."

"So what if there's a few more Heartless here and there? You'd have to be a fool or a weakling to be overpowered by one of _those,_ anyway."

Before the argument could go on any longer, Dorga stood up, tapping his staff on the table and getting in a few words for the first time in a while.

"Excuse me," he said, "But it's becoming more and more apparent that this conversation is going nowhere. Let us leave the dead Organization to rest, and move on to other matters--most importantly, what should be done about the threat of Gil-Neithev and the Light?"

"Yes," Unne said, also standing up, "You're quite an influential figure to the people of the Light worlds, so why haven't you stepped in to stop this madness?"

For a few moments, nobody said anything. Finally Yen Sid broke the silence, standing up from his seat along with the other two wizards.

"Dorga and Unne, the last of the Chasers apart from myself," he said, "I'm afraid you are gravely mistaken as to the nature of Gil-Neithev, and of the Light itself, to even suggest that they are the next great threat to the Worlds."

He walked away from his seat, walked across the room once, and then returned to his original position, turning toward the others.

"I cannot simply abandon the cause of Light to help you, my old friends."

"So, even as the Flood of Light approaches, you won't do anything to stop it?"

Yen Sid laughed, turning away from the two other wizards and walking over to a window. The sunlight shone over the old wizard, illuminating him with a strange glow that seemed to come from his own body as much as it did from the sun.

"And what, exactly, makes you think I would want to _stop_ such a thing?"


	16. Chapter 11: Transformations

**Chapter 11: Transformations**

Lexaeus hoisted up his massive weapon like it weighed nothing, blocking Michiko's blows with ease. The girl did a flip backward, catching onto the wall with her feet and using it to propel herself forward again. This time, the huge man wasn't quite fast enough--the girl's Keyblade swung past his axe and struck him in the lower arm, causing him to flinch and step back a little.

"Congratulations," Lexaeus said, dematerializing his weapon, "You've finally learned to break through my defenses--no easy feat for one who only relies on their weapon in combat."

He rubbed his arm in the spot where the girl's Keyblade had managed to hit, noticing that there was now a fairly large bruise there. She was getting stronger every day--it seemed like it was just yesterday that a simple Keyblade swing like that wouldn't have even been felt.

"So, are we done for today?", she asked, leaning on her Keyblade.

"No," Lexaeus said, "It's about time that we move onto some defensive techniques."

He summoned his weapon again, smashing it into the floor in front of him and causing several floor tiles to float up in the air. One by one, the tiles sent themselves flying at the girl like square-shaped throwing stars, spinning around and around as they went.

And the first three smacked into the girl before she even knew what was going on, knocking her to the ground. She tried to roll out of the way of a fourth tile, but it struck her foot anyway, knocking the shoe loose from it and sending it flying across the room.

"You can't just dodge them," Lexaeus said, "At least not until you regain some of your former speed. Try blocking them with your Keyblade now."

"Can I at least get my shoe back on first?", she asked, looking over to the corner of the room where her missing shoe had landed.

"Of course not," Lexaeus said, preparing another wave of spinning tiles, "In a real battle, nobody would give you a chance to get your shoe back. And that's what I'm training you for--_real_ battles. Get ready!"

The tiles came rushing at the girl again, but this time only one of them managed to hit. Michiko recovered from the first hit quickly, swinging her Keyblade out in front of her just in time to shatter the second tile. Two more came flying toward her, and she rolled out of the way--but this time, she kicked the first of the two tiles in mid-roll, causing it to split into several pieces and fall onto the floor.

The last tile flew toward her, but at the last second her Keyblade came swinging back up again, sending bits of the tile so high that some of them actually touched the celing...

Before raining back down into her hair, that is.

She reached up and picked the bits of stone out of her hair, grumbling about how she'd need to wash it again pretty soon. This was cut short, however, when four more tiles came her way.

This time, Michiko deflected the tiles perfectly, swinging her Keyblade in a wide arc as they approached and splitting all four of them into a million pieces. After the dust settled, there was a small pile of dust in front of her, the only thing left of the last four tiles.

"Good," Lexaeus said, "You're learning very quickly. I wouldn't be surprised if we could move on to something more advanced soon."

Zexion, standing in the doorway of the empty room that Lexaeus and Michiko had been using to train, only watched in amazement. It wouldn't be long before the green-haired girl would be back to her former strength--or possibly even beyond it.

* * *

Roxas walked slowly throughout the empty street, thinking about everything that had happened in the past few days. For years, he had only vague memories of his past--he remembered his name, the fact that he was Sora's Nobody, and a few details about each of his friends from when he was younger, but nothing more than that. He knew that he had been part of Organization XIII, but nothing else from his time in that group remained.

But in the past three days, everything had changed. Every morning after awakening, his first--and only--memory of the dream he had the night before was an image of the girl in the white dress. _Naminé._ And for a few seconds after waking, her voice would echo in his ears, usually not saying anything more than his name.

And every morning after he awakened, he would find that he remembered more about his past than he did the night before. First were memories of Twilight Town itself; next came more memories of Axel, Naminé, and his other close friends; and finally, memories of his time in the Organization, leading up to the point when he had left the group to figure out some of the mysteries that surrounded his existence.

It seemed that hardly any time had passed before he found himself standing at the edge of the woods bordering Twilight Town's outskirts. The pine trees were even larger than he remembered them, and various plants had grown over the old dirt path that led up to the abandoned mansion.

The tall iron gate, still left slightly open from the last time someone had entered it, was now covered in vines. The mansion, however, seemed untouched--there was not a single plant growing up onto its walls, even after more than ten years of abandonment.

The strangest thing of it all, however, was that Roxas had been walking on a street leading _away_ from the mansion when he started.

* * *

The old wooden door slammed shut as Dorga and Unne approached it, sealing the two inside the room along with Yen Sid. They turned to face him, seeing that the glow around him had intensified.

"Yen Sid," Dorga said, holding his staff out in front of him, "As powerful as you may be, you stand no chance of defeating the two of us together. I suggest you unseal the door and let us be on our way."

Unne tapped her foot on the floor, waiting for an answer. Dorga, on the other hand, stood perfectly still, holding out his staff in preparation for an attack--or possibly to begin one of his own.

"You have underestimated me, my friends," Yen Sid said, raising his hands high into the air as he spoke, "I'm sure you've noticed by now that I have far outlived my natural lifespan, or even that which I could have gained through any normal magic. Do you have any idea why this is?"

The other two Chasers continued to stand still, watching Yen Sid's every move. Several seconds passed, and finally the old wizard continued.

"I'm sure you recall that I never recieved the effects of Archmage Noah's spell," he said, his hands glowing brighter and brighter by the second, "However, with some help from the Light, I have become able to duplicate the effects of that spell. And now..."

Dorga and Unne flinched, looking surprised for the first time in their visit to Yen Sid's tower. This was far more of an increase in power than either of them had expected--even with Gil-Neithev's help, casting the spell that Archmage Noah spent his entire life perfecting would have been no easy task.

"Yes, you old fools," Yen Sid said, the light beginning to fill the entire room as his transformation began, "The spell I devised was a perfect copy of Noah's life's work... up to and including its rather monstrous side-effects."

The two Chasers covered their eyes as the light became unbearable. For a second, Dorga's face was actually visible under his hood, before the light became so bright that everything was rendered invisible by the glare. Potion bottles on the shelves shattered, releasing their contents for a second before they too were affected by the light, evaporating away and dissipating into the air. Books caught fire, being reduced to ashes in seconds. The rug on the floor was burned away as well, leaving a black square on the floor where it had been burned in.

And then the light began to fade away, revealing the form that Yen Sid had taken...


	17. Chapter 12: Battle of the Chasers

**Chapter 12: Battle of the Chasers**

The three knights walked down a hallway with a red carpet, slowly approaching the huge door ahead of them.

"The Queen is beyond that door," the tallest of the three said, "As well as the Keyblade wielder she has taken in."

"Yes," the female knight said, "The one who crippled the Darkness enough for Gil-Neithev to finally return to consciousness..."

"And we have returned as well," the shorter male knight said, "Praise be to Gil-Neithev!"

The others repeated the phrase before finally opening the door and walking into the throne room. On the far end of the room were two golden thrones, reaching halfway to the celing and adorned with various symbols in a language that had long been forgotten by the islands. On the thrones sat the young King and Queen--Sora and Kairi, those chosen by Gil-Neithev.

The tallest of the knights, upon reaching the thrones, kneeled down and lowered his head. The others followed, waiting until after the first had stood back up before standing up themselves. Kairi smiled.

"Welcome, Warriors of Light," she said, "We've been expecting you."

* * *

Where Yen Sid once stood, there was now a heavily-muscled, golden-skinned man, still surrounded by an aura of light even after the rest of it had faded. He had six arms, each of them growing out at a different angle, and towered over the other two wizards--he was easily seven feet tall. He was still wearing something similar to his wizardly robes, but they were now purely white in color, and decorated with golden letters in some ancient language.

"Now," he said, "It is time for those who turned away from the Light to be punished!"

Dorga and Unne braced themselves as a shockwave rushed across the floor, but the two were shoved up against the wall behind them. Dorga's staff fell from his hand, shattering on the floor as another shockwave came. Unne managed to keep a grip on her cane, but it didn't last very long, as the next shock threw the two of them to the ground and shattered it.

"You give us no choice," Dorga said, standing back up and resisting the shockwaves that continued to run throught the floor, "Now we, too, must reveal our true forms."

The old wizard floated into the air several feet, curling up in something that resembled the fetal position as he went. Unne also began to float above the ground, and a blue glow began to surround her entire body.

The room began to glow once again as the two Chasers were surrounded by some kind of silvery-blue energy, forcing Yen Sid to cover his eyes with two of his arms to block it all out. Before the light became so bright that nobody could see anything, Dorga and Unne's forms began to twist around, changing into the monstrous ones that Noah's spell had given them.

The light faded, leaving a faint blue glow in the room for several seconds afterward, as the two wizards slowly became visible again. Dorga still floated in midair, but his body had lost any resemblance to a human, instead looking like a twisting, chaotic mass of body parts. Several insectoid legs grew out from the lower half of the mass, with multiple eyes and a large, tooth-filled mouth as the only indicator of what part was now his face. The new Dorga opened his mouth, and a long, blue tongue, similar to a chameleon's, uncurled from it.

Unne, too, had undergone a bizarre change. Where the old woman once stood, there was now a tall, blue-skinned creature, still feminine in shape but completely lacking any form of clothing. Her fingers were now much longer, and ended in sharp claws. Her head had shifted its shape toward that of a lizard or some other creature, with no visible ears or nose. Her eyes were entirely white, with no pupil visible, and her mouth was filled with a set of sharp teeth. There was a single horn jutting out from the area just past her forehead, and her hair was now long, stringy, and orange in color.

Yen Sid threw a punch with one hand, releasing a burst of Light that flew across the room and sent stone blocks flying as it struck the wall. Dorga teleported out of the way, lashing out at Yen Sid with his tongue, as Unne rushed forward and leaped, trying to tear at him with her claws. Three of Yen Sid's arms shifted positions and moved to block the oncoming attacks, sending the other two wizards flying backward.

Unne jumped again, this time latching onto one of Yen Sid's many arms and tearing into it with her claws. She was thrown off, but caught herself on a now-empty bookshelf, bouncing back toward her opponent. Yen Sid was knocked backwards, grabbing the wall with several arms to keep from falling out of the window, and threw the blue-skinned creature off once again.

Dorga floated close to Yen Sid and wrapped his tongue around one arm, causing a strange green glow to surround it. Yen Sid turned, feeling his life being sapped away through the arm, and grabbed Dorga's tongue, using it to spin him around and throw him into a wall. The misshapen wizard countered with a Break spell, but Yen Sid picked up the table in front of him, blocking the gray, petrifying blast before it could hit any part of his body.

Yen Sid attacked with a spell of his own, but before it could hit, Unne put up a shimmering wall of energy that send it flying back at its caster, striking one of Yen Sid's many hands and nearly pulling it off of his body. The glowing wizard charged at Unne, swinging the petrified table at her, but she jumped at the last minute, landing ontop of the table and kicking Yen Sid in the face.

Dorga floated back into the room, and the two wizards combined their power, sending a massive burst of silvery-blue energy toward Yen Sid. He blocked it with an equally-powerful burst of Light, and the two beams clashed in the middle of the room for what seemed like forever before finally destroying each other in a massive explosion. Stone blocks fell from the celing, nearly hitting the three wizards several times, but still the battle continued.

Unne held up both hands in front of her, sending a storm of icicles flying at Yen Sid. Even with six arms, he wasn't able to block all of the ice, and was sent flying into the wall behind him, causing some of the stones to be knocked loose and fall off of the tower entirely. He caught himself again, and sent hundreds of blasts of Light flying toward the other two wizards, pummeling them and nearly destroying the wall behind them.

"Dorga," Unne said, pulling herself up from the wreckage and surrounding the two Chasers with another reflective shield, "This can't go on forever."

"I'm well aware of that fact," Dorga said, floating back up into the air, "But what else can we do but fight? Yen Sid will destroy the tower around us if it ensures our deaths. He's gone completely mad."

"I can hold him off for a while alone," Unne said, "But it's important that at least one of us survives this. If you leave now--"

"If I leave now, I will only be postponing the inevitable," Dorga said, "The forces of Light want us dead, Unne... and this time, there is no great Warrior of Darkness to stop them."

"Not _yet_ there isn't," Unne said, "But that's why you need to escape. The boy, Riku--he's been touched by Xehanort's power before, and through it has learned to use the Darkness himself. If you could provide him with a bit of a boost..."

The barrier that Unne had formed around the two of them shattered as Yen Sid bombarded them with yet another swarm of Light. Both were hit, but the partially-destroyed wall provided enough cover that neither of them were seriously injured.

"Go, now!", Unne said, "It doesn't matter if I die! If even one of us lives, there is still hope for the Worlds! Leave, and find Riku, before it's too late!"

Dorga said nothing, only watching as Unne jumped toward Yen Sid again, attacking with such ferocity that one of his arms was torn from his body entirely.

"You're right," Dorga mumbled to himself, "As long as even one of us survives, there will be hope for the Worlds... I won't disappoint you, then. Goodbye, Unne... may we meet again someday."

With that, the old wizard reverted to his human form. There was a flash of silvery light, and before anyone--even Yen Sid--could stop him, Dorga had teleported away from the tower in search of Riku, never to return.


	18. Chapter 13: Twilight

**Chapter 13: Twilight**

The Gummi Ship slowly landed, coming to a stop in a grassy field just outside of Twilight Town. Mickey gathered up all of the papers he had been reading on our way here, stuffing them back into the glove compartment of the ship, and I briefly wondered why it was called a "glove compartment." After all, nobody ever seemed to store gloves in them--not even Mickey, who always wore a pair of white gloves wherever he went.

Mickey hopped out of the ship, and I followed soon afterward. We began walking toward Twilight Town's entrance on the old dirt road, noticing that there seemed to be a crowd gathered somewhere in the town.

"They sure are loud," Mickey said, looking around to see if the source of all the cheering and yelling was anywhere nearby, "Sounds like they're having another Struggle tournament today."

"Most likely," I said, continuing to walk into the city, "I mean, that's about the only thing around here that draws a crowd like that. I wonder who's entered the tournament this time?"

"Well, why don't we go see for ourselves?", Mickey said, turning toward me as we walked, "Master Yen Sid's always been a pretty patient guy, unless you mess around with his things without his permission. I'm sure he won't mind waiting a little longer for us to get there."

Even if the battles weren't exactly spectacular, staying to watch the Struggle tournament would be a nice change of pace from everything that's been happening lately. For once, I'd have a chance to just sit back and watch--rather than being forced to run and hide all the time.

"Sounds good to me," I said, "Now, where's the concessions stand? I'm sure we could both use some ice cream right about now."

Mickey just smiled and nodded, and then the two of us went running down the street toward the crowd, just like we were both kids again.

* * *

"Zexion," Vexen said, sounding oddly nervous for a second, "You'd better come and see this."

Zexion rushed over to where Vexen was standing, in front of one of the large computers he had installed in Castle Oblivion's security rooms. Lexaeus and Michiko, having just finished their training session for the day, followed shortly afterward, and everyone gathered around the computer to see what Vexen had discovered.

"So what is it you've dragged us over here to see?", Zexion asked, staring at the screen but not seeing anything out of the ordinary. Vexen seemed to have some sort of tracking program open, but nothing seemed any different from the usual readings that he'd pick up on such a program.

"Yes, everything looks normal right now," the old scientist said, "But watch. When I change the setting to only detect Nobodies..."

The machine beeped, and all but a few of the blinking dots vanished. There were four located in Castle Oblivion--obviously, the four who were now gathered around the computer. There were a few scatted throughout the wilderness, likely to be Dusks and other basic Nobodies that had survived. And then there was another...

"Right there, in Twilight Town's old mansion," Vexen said, pointing at the small, yellow dot that was blinking in that area, "And, as you can see by this Nobody's movement patterns... it's not just another Dusk."

"Hmm," Lexaeus mumbled, "It appears we are not the only ones of our kind left, after all. It seems that there is another who managed to retain intelligence, even as a Nobody."

"Or," Zexion added in, "Maybe this 'new' Nobody we have discovered is actually one we've met before."

* * *

Roxas walked into the old mansion, halfway expecting some monster to leap out at him like so many of the glowing insect-creatures had done in the past year. But nothing ever came--nothing but the silence of the empty, abandoned building.

"This is ridiculous," Roxas said, turning around and getting ready to leave the place, "Nobody's here... _nothing_ is here. Why'd I even come here to begin with?"

But, no matter how hard he tried to leave, something in his mind kept urging him to keep going. He walked out of the building once, only to change his mind and turn around again. This continued for several minutes before he finally made up his mind--there had to be _something_ important in the old mansion, or he wouldn't be drawn to the place so strongly.

He walked through the large room just inside the mansion, looking around at the various pieces of furniture and other objects that were lined up in several places in the room. He peeked into the old dining room, seeing nothing of interest, and then headed up the first flight of stairs he came to.

Walking along the balcony, he eventually came to a door, which seemed to have been left open slightly. Through the crack in the door, he could see a room that was entirely flooded with _white._ The walls, the floor, the chairs, the rectangular table in the center... everything in the room was white.

It reminded him of Castle Oblivion's rooms, which also had purely-white walls and furniture, yet it felt somehow different. He reached up and pushed the door open, walking into the white room.

And then he froze. There were pictures covering every wall of the room, and even some lying all over the table, yet there was nobody here to draw them. The room was as still and empty as a tomb, and there were no footprints in the dust that coated the floor--but some of the pictures were so new that the ink had not yet dried.

He looked closer, and then immediately knew why he had been drawn to the old mansion. The pictures were of _him,_ and of things from his memories, drawn in such great detail that it was hard to tell them apart from photographs. There were two large pictures on the wall, each depicting one of the two Keyblades he now wielded. There was a framed picture of the entire Organization--well, _almost_ the entire Organization. Several members--most notably the Superior himself--were missing from the picture, with only empty space where they should have been.

And then there were pictures of things he _didn't_ recognize. A vast city, illuminated by a bright sun, was shown in one picture; another had three armored knights, each of them carrying a huge, metallic-colored Keyblade. There were several pictures of someone who resembled Riku, but the man in the pictures was older than the Riku he remembered--it was entirely possible that these pictures showed what Riku looked like now, after ten years.

The most disturbing picture of all, however, was the huge one that hung over the door, as if watching the others--or even ruling over them. It showed an enormous creature made of bright, flickering yellow light, snake-like in shape but with two long, claw-tipped arms. Its eyes seemed to follow him as he moved, even though it was obvious it was only a picture.

And then he saw it. A note, scribbled hastily on a piece of paper, was lying on the table, nearly crumpled in half as if its author had to rush to get it there. It was a simple note, with only a few short words.

"Come back after midnight--it's important."

It was signed with only a first name... but it was a very familiar name to Roxas.

_Naminé._


	19. Chapter 14: A Distraction

**Chapter 14: A Distraction**

"So, who do you suppose this new Nobody is?", Lexaeus asked, turning toward Zexion and Michiko.

"It's hard to say," Zexion said, holding his hand to his chin and thinking about it, "Only two of us never died, and those two were Roxas and Naminé..."

"...but for either of them to return," Lexaeus continued, "Their 're-combined' selves would have to become incomplete again somehow."

"And that's exactly what's bothering me," Zexion mumbled, "I can't imagine Sora discarding his body and re-creating Roxas... not after his mad rush to destroy Nobodies before."

"Yes," Lexaeus said, "I doubt Sora would willingly return any member of the Organization to life. But Kairi... perhaps she is the one?"

"Which would make our 'mystery Nobody' Naminé," Zexion said, "Yet there hasn't been a sign of her in Castle Oblivion in all these years."

"Hmm... so why would Naminé come to Castle Oblivion, anyway?", Michiko asked, looking over toward the two men.

"Her sketchbooks," Lexaeus answered, "We always had an entire storage closet devoted to her sketchbooks. If she remembered anything of her past, she would most likely come here searching for that supply."

"What's so important about sketchbooks?", the girl asked, giving Lexaeus an odd look, "She could buy some of those _anywhere._"

"Possibly," Zexion said, "But that would require money, which Naminé likely would have no way of earning. The storeroom at Castle Oblivion would be the easiest way for her to find more without having to pay for them."

"Well, yeah," Michiko said, walking away from the wall a few feet, "But she could always just get a job in Twilight Town, right? It wouldn't be too hard to get enough money for _paper,_ even if she had to resort to prost-"

"I wouldn't suggest finishing that word," Vexen said, stepping out of his lab with a batch of papers in his hands, "But that's beside the point. I've discovered the identity of our mysterious 'new' Nobody."

"And?", Lexaeus said, turning toward the old scientist.

"I'm unsure of what condition he's currently in, or whether he remembers anything from his time in the Organization," Vexen said, "But one thing is sure: our 'mystery Nobody' is, in fact, one of our former members."

"_Former_ members?" Zexion asked, looking at Vexen suspiciously.

"Yes," the old man said, "If you recall, Xemnas branded him as a traitor after he left us; not long after the Castle Oblivion incident, if I remember correctly."

"Hmm," Zexion mumbled, "That's true, but I don't believe Xemnas' decrees are valid now that--"

Zexion suddenly stopped talking and only stared at Vexen. His hand slipped away from his chin for a second, and he looked more surprised than he had been for a _very_ long time. Vexen, on the other hand, was grinning in a way that he rarely did outside of the privacy of his lab.

"Wait--how did **you** know about... How... But... weren't you..."

"Yes, I was very much dead at the time," Vexen said, still smiling, "But that, as Lexaeus and I discovered, did not necessarily have any effect on our ability to know what was going on 'back home.'"

* * *

There was a silvery flash of light, and suddenly Dorga appeared in the field beyond the outskirts of Twilight Town, nearly falling over as he landed in the wet grass. But the important thing, of course, was that he had survived--and as long as he survived, the knowledge and power of the ancient Chasers lived on.

Dorga held up his hand, causing a rush of silvery energy to form itself into a fuzzy line in front of him. The energy flickered and twisted in midair for several seconds, before finally materializing into a copy of his staff--a decent replacement for the one he had lost in his encounter with Yen Sid.

The old wizard walked around for a while, heading toward the town in the distance. He was now visibly limping--though wounds from his true form were not visible in his human form, he could still feel them just as well.

"Now," he mumbled, looking out at the town on the horizon and the bizarre state of permanent sunset that covered it, "To fulfill my promise to Unne, and find the heir to Xehanort's power... _Riku._"

* * *

Another unsuspecting teenager entered the arena against Seifer, picking up a Struggle bat and waving it around in a poor imitation of a very familiar fighting style...

"Hey, look at that kid!", I said, pointing him out to Mickey, "It looks like they still remember Roxas around here after all!"

"Sure does!", Mickey said, chuckling and taking another slurp from the ice cream bar. The kid in the arena was obviously imitating Roxas' fighting style--the only problem with that, of course, was the fact that the rules only allowed one bat for each person who entered.

Within a minute, the Roxas fan was knocked senseless, wobbling out of the arena with the bat still in his hand. He probably would have walked back home with it, if not for the announcer rushing over to grab it away at the last second.

Seifer paced around the arena, spinning his bat around and occasionally pointing at various people in the crowd--mostly teenage girls. Almost the entire crowd cheered, with the loudest cheers coming from the section of the crowd on the other side of the arena from our seats, where a thin, silver-haired girl and a muscular, tan-skinned man were sitting.

"I wonder if anyone's ever going to beat this guy," I said, licking my ice cream and watching the ever-thinning group of contestants. Sora mentioned Seifer being the reigning champion when _he_ competed in the tournament, and now I could see why--nobody else could last more than a minute against him.

"Well, ya never know," Mickey said, taking a bite out of the nearly-melted ice cream bar before turning toward me.

"Hey, maybe _you_ should enter, Riku!"

"What? Me? I don't know, that wouldn't really be fair, would it?"

"Sure it would! You can't use your Keyblade in there, remember?"

"Yeah, that's true... but what about my Darkness powers?"

"Well, you don't _have_ to use those, y'know."

"Hmm... maybe you're right. I mean, if we're going to stay here the whole time anyway, I might as well participate a little."

"There ya go! That's the Riku I know!", the mouse King said, hopping out of his seat, "I'll go talk to the announcer; you just wait here!"


	20. Chapter 15: Seifer Gets His Butt Kicked

**Chapter 15: Seifer Gets His Butt Kicked**

"Gawrsh, are you sure we should be doin' this?", Goofy said, turning and looking down toward Donald as the two of them walked down the halls of Disney Castle.

"Whaddya think?", Donald squawked, "Of course we should. The King's gone--and this time he didn't even leave us a note. We've gotta do _somethin'._"

"But," Goofy said, "Don't ya think Queen Minnie can handle everything while he's gone?"

"No way!", Donald yelled, "The only reason she's a Queen in the first place is 'cause the King _married_ her. She can't run the whole place by herself!"

"Well, gawrsh," Goofy said, looking stunned, "Ya don't have'ta yell... I just don't see why we've gotta go changin' things around so fast, that's all."

"What, do you _want_ the Darkness to take over again?", Donald said, "You remember what happened the last time the King left--Pete and Maleficent got in and started causin' trouble! We can't let that happen again!"

"Well, yeah, but--"

"But nothin'! If King Mickey ain't here, nobody's safe--so we gotta do somethin' about it!"

"Well, okay," Goofy mumbled, "It's just that... somethin' doesn't feel right about it, that's all..."

"That's just your Darkness talkin'," Donald said, "Ya gotta ignore it for now. As soon as we get back to Sora, that'll all be over with."

* * *

Seifer nearly fell over, catching himself at the last second.

"Whoa, sorry about that," I said, "Didn't realize I was hitting _that_ hard..."

"What? You're _apologizing?_", he said, getting back into a fighting stance and readying his Struggle bat, "What kind of punk _apologizes_ in the middle of a fight?"

"Heh, not even Roxas ever did _that,_" he continued, "And he was one heck of a chicken wuss when he was a kid."

Suddenly I didn't feel all that sorry for smacking him so hard. In fact, I felt like hitting him a little harder now--maybe I'd knock some sense into him. Was he always like this, or had winning so many Struggle tournaments gotten to his head?

"What, you're gonna stop fighting?", Seifer said, raising up his Struggle bat, "Come on! Don't be such a wuss, Reek!"

"That's _Riku._"

"Sure sounded like Reek to me."

I spun around, holding out the Struggle bat with one hand and swinging it at his head. There was a loud crack, and I looked down, noticing that I had thwacked him so hard that the bat had split in two.

Seifer wobbled around for a second before dropping his Struggle bat and falling flat on his face.

* * *

Dorga walked between two trees, finally leaving the vast plains of the Twilight World and entering the woods bordering Twilight Town. He leaned on his staff like a crutch as he walked, as he was still limping--but his wounds were beginning to heal. They were helped, in no small amount, by the various Cure spells he had cast on himself along the way.

"So, this is Twilight Town now," he mumbled, looking at the woods, the mansion, and the town beyond it. Of all the buildings he could see, only the mansion looked familiar--and it seemed to have been long abandoned.

"It's grown up a bit since the last time I was here, I see," he said, passing by the old mansion and walking down the overgrown path that led away from it, "But this will likely only be a short visit. Riku's here... I can sense the power within him more and more as I draw closer."

He stopped in front of the old building, looking around and finding that his eyes were drawn to a room on the second floor with white walls. After a few minutes of watching, he noticed something rather strange.

There was someone inside the mansion.

* * *

Roxas sat in the dusty hallway, wondering what was going on. Apparently, Naminé was still around--but how had she drawn all of these pictures without leaving a single footprint in the dust?

Or a fingerprint, even--everything he touched was marked with obvious fingerprints, yet there hadn't been a single one in the room before he arrived. Had Naminé somehow managed to escape the all-consuming Light that surely existed within Kairi, just as it had existed within Sora?

And, if she _was_ still around here somewhere, why hadn't he seen her? She would have had to come to the mansion to paint so many pictures here... but he passed by the mansion on his patrol of the city every day, and he hadn't seen a sign of her the entire time--not even once, in all of the five years he had been living in Twilight Town.

Roxas stood up, brushing the dust off of his pants and looking around again. He still had the note in his pocket, and he pulled it out once again to look at it.

"Well," he mumbled, "It's definitely her handwriting... but how?"

He walked around a little, peeking into the white room once again and looking at all the pictures while mumbling things to himself the whole time.

"But how... how can someone write a note, or draw a picture, without even leaving a single fingerprint...?"

He folded up the note again, sticking it back into his pocket and walking back down the stairs. He stopped to look up toward the white room once again before turning and heading out the door of the mansion.

"I'll be back," he said, looking back at the building behind him as he passed through the old gate, "After midnight. It's important... right, Naminé? So I'll be there."

Roxas turned away from the building, walking past the gate and heading down the road leading through the woods. He pushed through the plants that had grown up over the path, and for a moment he almost considered pulling out one of his Keyblades and using _them_ to remove the overgrowth.

And then, he suddenly found himself face-to-face with a strange-looking old man in a red, hooded cloak. Somehow, the man's moustache was still visible through the darkness of the hood, even though no other facial features were, and he was holding a long, whitish-colored staff.

"Who are _you?_", Roxas said, reaching up toward the handles of his two Keyblades.

"I mean you no harm," Dorga said, leaning on his staff, "In fact, I would have not stopped to meet you at all if you had already been outside of the mansion when I arrived."

Roxas lowered his hands away from the Keyblade-handles, but stayed cautious. Several seconds passed. Then Dorga shrugged, and backed away from him, opening the path to Twilight Town once again.

"That still doesn't answer my question," Roxas said, stepping forward slightly, "Who _are_ you?"

"I am one who has watched this World for hundreds of years," Dorga said, "You could say I am the last of my kind... my name is Dorga."

"Hmm... doesn't ring any bells," Roxas said, beginning to walk away. The old wizard looked at the Keyblades strapped across Roxas' back for a few moments, and then spoke.

"I suppose you do not know the origin of your Keyblades, then?"

Roxas turned around suddenly.

"What do you mean?", Roxas said, "My Keyblades came into existence along with the rest of me."

"That is true," Dorga said, examining the Keyblades once again, "But you do not know the origin of the Keyblade that gave birth to them... the one that your 'other half' was chosen to wield."

"Sora's Keyblade..."

"Yes, the Kingdom Key... the primary Keyblade of Light, created to represent the force of Light when used for good purposes. Your Keyblades are the direct descendants of it, as it were."

"But what does any of this have to do with _you,_ Dorga?"

"Without my involvement, neither the Kingdom Key nor your own weapons would exist," Dorga said. He walked away from Roxas a few feet, turning to face Twilight Town before speaking again.

"Because I was the one who crafted that Keyblade, all those years ago."


	21. Chapter 16: Dorga

**Chapter 16: Dorga**

"You... you _made_ Sora's Keyblade?"

Roxas wasn't sure what to think. Roxas had always figured that the Keyblades just _popped_ into existence somehow, when they were needed--he had never stopped to think that maybe someone actually had to make them.

And, if he had, he certainly wouldn't have guessed that whoever made them would still be alive today. Keyblades had been mentioned in legends for hundreds of years--how could someone who was around to help create them still be alive?

"I'm sure that only brings more questions to your mind," Dorga said, "But do not dwell on them now. Your job is to protect Twilight Town--no, the entire Twilight World--from those who would threaten it."

"Yeah," Roxas muttered, "That's what I've been doing for the past five years, anyway... first it was leftover Heartless and Nobodies, and now it's these... weird, glowing bug _things._"

"So Gil-Neithev has reawakened," Dorga said, turning and walking away from Roxas again, "I had suspected as much. The creatures you fight today, they are very much like the Heartless... but rather than being born from Darkness, they draw on the power of Light."

"So they're... Light Heartless?"

"You could say that. But do not let their source of power fool you--though Light has often been said in legends to be a positive force, these creatures surely are not."

"You got _that_ right... those things have been trying to kill me all year."

"Of course. You, like all Nobodies, contain some amount of Darkness within you, as well as some Light. The creatures under the command of Gil-Neithev do not care _who_ they kill--they do not see the outer appearance, only the Light and Darkness within."

"And if there's Darkness... they try to kill us."

"Exactly. They will target Heartless, Nobodies, and even complete beings indiscriminately, so long as they contain even the tiniest amount of Darkness... it is only Gil-Neithev's control over them that prevents them from causing a massacre unlike any the Worlds have ever seen."

"Gil-Neithev... But who _is_ Gil-Neithev?"

If Dorga's face was at all visible, he would have looked stunned after hearing Roxas' question. _Who is Gil-Neithev?_ Such a question seemed ridiculous--how could anyone _not_ know who Gil-Neithev was?

"Wh... what did you say, again?"

"I asked you who Gil-Neithev was... you've mentioned him a lot, but I've never heard of anyone called 'Gil-Neithev' before."

"Hmm... This is rather unexpected," Dorga said, pacing back and forth slowly, "While Gil-Neithev himself failed, his followers have succeeded... removing all trace of that ancient enemy from history... convincing the masses that none of it ever happened..."

"What? What's going on?"

"That, my friend," Dorga said, "Is a very good question... one that more people should be asking these days."

The old wizard began quickly walking away from Roxas, rushing into Twilight Town at speeds that someone even a tenth his age usually wouldn't be capable of. Roxas had to start running just to catch up with him.

"Dorga!", he yelled, "Where are you going?"

"I'm off to meet someone," Dorga said, quickening his pace even more, "I promised someone that I would talk to him before it was too late... and it appears I will not make it on time if I don't hurry."

Roxas soon found that he could no longer keep up, and stopped in the middle of the street, breathing heavily.

"That's... okay," he said between breaths, "I've... got someone I need to meet, too... later."

* * *

The King and I walked away from the Struggle tournament, each holding a bar of sea-salt ice cream. Mickey was also carrying a small bag containing various other snacks, and I had an extra thing to carry as well--the trophy for winning this year's Struggle tournament.

It was a funny-shaped thing, with a wide base made of some sort of blue stone, or possibly some type of hard, heavy plastic. There were several long, curly parts sticking up from the base, with a multi-colored crystal orb attached to the end of each one.

Now that I looked at it more closely, I noticed that it actually looked rather fragile--like if I dropped it for whatever reason, the base would probably be the only part left in one piece. I could now tell that the base probably wasn't solid--it felt more like a hollow object, filled with some type of heavy sand to make it stand up straight.

But then again, Twilight Town wasn't exactly the wealthiest place in the world, so it wasn't surprising that even the town's biggest event of the year wouldn't have a terribly expensive prize. It didn't really matter, anyway--the important part wasn't the prize itself, but what you do to try and get to it.

"So, looks like it's about time to be on our way," I said, looking down to the small King who was munching away on his ice cream bar. Mickey looked back up toward me for a second, and then answered.

"Yep," he said, "Yen Sid's gotta know somethin' about this Gil-Neithev thing."

"Yeah," I said, "Now, how do we get to his tower, again?"

"We'll need to take the train," Mickey said, digging around in his pockets for a few seconds, "I've got enough munny for the two of us, so you won't have to worry about anything."

The two of us walked toward the train station, noticing that the crowds from the Struggle tournament were beginning to clear out now that it was all over. Occasionally a kid would stop to gawk at me--and at the trophy--but other than that, it was a fairly peaceful walk through the streets.

But that all changed when we arrived in front of the station. Standing directly in front of the entrance was a strange old man in red robes, holding a staff out in front of him. His hood was pulled over his head, and nothing was visible of his face but a thick, white moustache.

"Who in the world is THAT?", I asked, looking to Mickey to see if he knew any more about this than I did. He looked back at me and shrugged once, before looking back at the strange cloaked man.

"I don't know," he said, "But something about him feels... familiar, somehow."

"You know him?"

"No, I'm pretty sure I don't... it's just that, there's some kinda aura around him that I've felt before."

"That is to be expected," the old man said, lowering his staff and leaning on it, "You, King Mickey the Second... You were once the pupil of Yen Sid, if I remember correctly."

"That's right," Mickey said, "You know him?"

"You could say we have a certain something in common."

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?", I asked, stepping toward him.

"It must be that feeling I'm getting... now that I think of it, he _does_ seem kinda like Yen Sid somehow," Mickey said.

"You are quite perceptive of such things," the wizard said, "Good. That will make it considerably easier for me to explain the things you must know."

The old man walked away from the train station, heading in the direction of the woods. He held up one hand and motioned for us to follow him.

"You think we should follow that guy?", I asked, "He seems a little suspicious to me."

"Yeah, I know," Mickey said, "But I've got a feeling that this guy's just as important as Yen Sid is--and that's not something I get from people often."

"I know," I said, "I'd like to know what it is he'd like to tell us, too... let's just be careful, okay?"

"Of course," Mickey said, putting most of the bags of snacks that he was holding onto the sidewalk. Some hungry kid was going to be very lucky today.

"We must hurry," the old man said, beginning to walk very quickly toward the woods, "Eyes of Gil-Neithev are everywhere... and their numbers will only increase if we wait."

* * *

Several minutes later, the three of us had reached the old mansion on the outskirts of Twilight Town. Mickey and I were exhausted, having had to run the whole way just to keep up with the old wizard. He was surprisingly fast, especially considering the fact that he wasn't even running.

"So," I said, turning toward the old man after catching my breath, "What is it that you wanted to talk to us about?"

"Many things," he said, pacing back and forth, "But first, I'll tell you who I am. I am one who watches over this world... my name is Dorga."

"Dorga," Mickey said, "That name sounds kinda familiar..."

"I suppose it would be for one who studied under Yen Sid," Dorga said, turning toward the King, "Though it has been ages since the two of us worked together, it is likely that he still has books and scrolls that mention my name."

* * *

Dorga, the King, and I talked for what seemed like hours. We learned about Gil-Neithev, who we now knew was an ancient being of Light that sought to conquer--and then destroy--all worlds. We learned that a type of creature controlled by Gil-Neithev, similar to Heartless but powered by Light, now existed, and that their numbers were building at an increasingly high rate.

We learned that Gil-Neithev's influence had begun to spread throughout the worlds, and was especially strong in the World of Light. That explained the situation back home--whoever had taken over the islands must have been under Gil-Neithev's complete control, with the way things had changed there.

And we learned a very interesting bit of information about Dorga... he was one of a group known as "Chasers"--those who had crafted the Keyblades.

"So, Dorga," I said, "_You_ were the one who made the Keyblades?"

"Only one of them, I'm afraid," he said, "The one that is now wielded by Sora, the Kingdom Key. Mickey, your Keyblade was also crafted by one of my associates... a man named Zande, who is now dead."

"And then there's my Keyblade," I said, "But I know where _that_ one came from... even though I'm still not quite sure how it happened."

"Hmm," Dorga said, suddenly sounding interested, "You have a Keyblade as well... well, this is rather odd indeed. I had thought that the weapon you wielded was a sword of Darkness, created by Xehanort's Heartless..."

"The Soul Eater," I said, "You're right, I did use that sword for a long time... but then, one day, it transformed."

I summoned my Keyblade, causing a purplish-blue flash around my hands for a second before the weapon quickly materialized. It was a blade in the shape of a bat's wing, dark blue in color but with red parts between the "fingers" of the wing. At the end of the weapon, another wing--this one feathered and white--was growing out of one of the "fingers."

"...into this. I call it 'Way to the Dawn.'"

"Most interesting," Dorga said, stroking his moustache, "A trusted weapon, filled with power and the will of its wielder through many battles... and then, an unexpected transformation. An evolution, even."

He paced about for a bit, still stroking his moustache. And then he spoke once again.

"Riku," he said, "As I expected... you are truly deserving of your position as Xehanort's heir."


	22. Chapter 17: Dorga's Gift

**Author's Note:** I finally decided to ditch the "1st-person Riku" parts, for various reasons... mainly because I probably should have gotten rid of that after the first few chapters, or never had it at all.

* * *

**Chapter 17: Dorga's Gift**

"I'm _what?_", Riku said, sounding shocked, "Xehanort's heir... But what does _he_ have to do with this?"

Dorga paced back and forth again, shaking his head slightly. First, they had no knowledge of Gil-Neithev; and now they knew nothing of Xehanort's origins, either. Gil-Neithev's followers had done much more to prepare for their master's return than anyone had ever expected.

"I see," Dorga mumbled, "Even the one who is to take Xehanort's place seems to know nothing about him..."

"What are you talking about?", Riku said, walking over to the old man, "_Of course_ I know about Xehanort--his Heartless used _me_ to try and destroy everything! And then, when he was about to be destroyed, he hid within _my_ heart to save himself!"

Riku walked over to Dorga, facing down the old wizard with a look that seemed like it would pierce through the darkness of his hood.

"If anyone can say they _really_ know about Xehanort... it's me."

"Yes," Dorga said, "That was Xehanort's Heartless... but surely you cannot believe that Xehanort was _always_ like that? Before he became a Heartless, Xehanort was already well beyond the bounds of sanity."

"So you're saying _I'm_ going to go insane and turn myself into a Heartless, too? Is that it?"

"No, of course not," Dorga said, walking back toward Riku, "In fact, if Xehanort had not gone insane in the first place, it would be quite likely that I would have no need to ask for your help at all."

"Riku," Mickey said, turning and looking up toward the silver-haired man, "I think we'd better listen to what Dorga has to say. Somethin' tells me there's a lot more to Xehanort than any of us know."

"That is correct," Dorga said, "I am sure you have heard that when Ansem the Wise originally found Xehanort, he was suffering from amnesia, correct?"

"Yep," Mickey said, "The poor guy couldn't remember anything, even after Ansem and his assistants tried to fix it."

"Yes... that is because his memory was erased by something far beyond the level of what a few scientists meddling with Darkness could ever hope to counteract... his memory was erased by the curse of Gil-Neithev."

"But... I thought you said Gil-Neithev was sealed away hundreds of years ago?", Riku asked, "How could Gil-Neithev have wiped Xehanort's memory if he was still sealed away then?"

"Indeed, it is true that Gil-Neithev was sealed," Dorga answered, "But what I have not mentioned is the identity of the one who sealed him away... Xehanort."

"So Xehanort was already around hundreds of years ago... how is that possible? He didn't look that old at all--not even close. What's going on?"

"Another effect of Gil-Neithev's curse," Dorga said, "Along with slowly eating away at his memories, the curse caused him to stop aging. Later, a cure was discovered... but that only brought about more side-effects, erasing Xehanort's memory completely and causing him to de-age until he was nearly a child again. And then... he somehow ended up on Radiant Garden's world, and was taken in by Ansem."

Dorga paced about a bit, before stopping and facing Riku again. He held out his staff, no longer leaning on it.

"However," he said, "Xehanort was weakened after his encounter with Sora, and driven to a point where he was nearly powerless after his battles with you and the King. And then, when Ansem's machine exploded..."

"...he was destroyed," Riku finished, "There's no trace of him left inside me now."

"And that," Dorga said, "Is where you are incorrect. It is the trace of Xehanort's power that remains in you that makes you his heir... along with a variety of, shall I say, _other_ factors. But do not be afraid of this power... though Xehanort's Heartless was its origin, you are its only master now."

Riku stood, staring at Dorga. If not for the other things he had already been told, he wouldn't have believed it--some of his power now actually came from Xehanort?

"Yes, Riku," Dorga continued, "Your connection to the Darkness can be partially credited to Xehanort... as can the method by which you created that Keyblade."

"Xehanort... _he_ had a Keyblade?"

"No, Xehanort was born before the crafting of even the first Keyblades," Dorga said, "But he, after becoming a Heartless, he developed an interest in Keyblades, and tried several times to create one himself. Surely you remember the weapon he used while possessing your body... the blade synthesized from the hearts of the Princesses?"

"That... that _thing_ was a Keyblade?"

"Not exactly... but I suppose it was close enough," Dorga said, "You see, Xehanort's technique for creating Keyblades was one vastly inferior to that of the Chasers--any Keyblade crafted through that method would have been imperfect, lacking the full powers of a true Keyblade. But you, Riku... you have perfected it."

Riku looked down at his Keyblade, which he was still holding, and examined every inch of it. So the remnants Xehanort's power had something to do with its "birth"... for the first time, he realized why the Way to the Dawn's keychain appeared in the shape of the Heartless symbol.

"Yes, Riku... you are not only a master of Darkness, but of the Keyblade as well," Dorga said, "But there is another reason you are said to be the heir to Xehanort's power."

"And... what would that be?"

"If you had traced your family's history back far enough, you would see for yourself. Though diluted through the generations, the blood of Xehanort's ancient tribe still runs through some, even today..."

"And Riku... you are not only a descendant of Xehanort's tribe, but of Xehanort himself."

* * *

It was a moonless day in the World of Darkness--and now, without Kingdom Hearts above it, there was very little light of any kind in the world.

But the silvery-haired man who now walked the streets of the World That Never Was didn't mind. Even with no light, he could see perfectly. Heartless scurried out of the way as he walked past their hiding places, and occasionally one would start walking behind him for a while before turning away and skittering off somewhere else.

A Neoshadow stepped up to him, and rather than attacking, it rubbed his leg much like a cat would. He looked down for a second, patting the creature on the head, and then continued walking.

Before long, the man had left the city's borders, and walked across a field of dark, bluish-green grass. There were pine trees visible in the distance, as well as several old houses which were in much worse condition than the ones in the city. The silver-haired man walked toward a hill, with a large building visible on top of it.

And suddenly, the area grew brighter. A glowing, centipede-like creature approached from behind one of the abandoned houses, causing everything it touched to be surrounded by an unnatural-looking pale glow. The silver-haired man turned toward the creature, summoning up a large, bladed weapon out of nowhere and staring at the centipede.

The creature perked up, sensing the presence of Darkness, and quickly rushed at the man. It leaped toward him, but he held up his weapon, stopping the creature in midair. He began to spin the weapon, causing the centipede to spin around along with it, until the blades of the weapon were spinning so quickly that they only appeared as a blur.

And then he took a step back, leaving the weapon--and the creature attached to it--spinning in midair. The weapon sped up suddenly, and the glowing centipede-thing was sliced into a million pieces. The weapon stopped, pausing in midair for several seconds, as the leftover bits of the dead creature fell to the ground, glowing brightly for a second before fading away and turning into a whitish dust.

The man smiled, grabbing his weapon out of the air and dematerializing it again, and headed up the path leading to the large building. He reached the top of the hill, quickly swung open the double-doors leading into the place, and then stepped inside. The glowing yellow eyes of many Heartless popped open, and they approached him, purring and squeaking much like kittens.

Then he snapped his fingers once, and the doors slammed shut.

* * *

Dorga waited a few minutes for it all to sink in. Riku was not only the "heir to Xehanort's power"--whatever it was _that_ meant--but his direct descendant as well.

"I know this is a bit of a sudden departure," Dorga said, stepping away from Riku and the King, "But I must be going now. It is no longer safe for me to show my face on this world."

"Wait!", Riku shouted, grabbing the old man's cloak with one hand, "_Why_ can't you stay out in the open here? I thought Gil-Neithev was mostly in the World of Light now... not here!"

"That is true," Dorga said, pushing Riku's hand away, "But Gil-Neithev himself is not the only problem... there are others. Those who have been fooled... who worship Gil-Neithev, while not realizing that they too will be destroyed..."

"If someone's helping Gil-Neithev here," Mickey said, stepping forward, "Then we'd better go somewhere safe before we figure out what to do next."

"Yeah," Riku said, turning back to the King, "Let's head to Yen Sid's tower, then. He's a pretty powerful guy--we'll be safe there."

"No," Dorga said, "I would not advise a trip to Yen Sid's tower... not now."

"What? Why's that?", Mickey asked, looking up at the old man.

"I'm afraid it will be difficult for you to accept this," the wizard said, leaning on his staff, "But Yen Sid is exactly the person I was talking about when I mentioned those who have been fooled by Gil-Neithev's words. If you go to him, you will be running headlong into a trap."

Mickey looked stunned. The wizard who had taught him everything he knew about magic, who had also taught Donald and Minnie their magic as well, was aiding Gil-Neithev--and probably had been for some amount of time. Had he been a follower of Gil-Neithev when he was teaching Mickey and his friends?

"M... Master Yen Sid... he's..."

"Yes, Mickey... Gil-Neithev's influence is growing stronger by the day. If something is not done soon, more and more of your friends may fall under his control... who knows what could happen."

Dorga stepped forward, holding up his staff. The staff began to glow slightly, and he touched the end of it to Riku's chest, surrounding him with a silvery-blue glow.

"I cannot come with you in your journey," the old wizard said, pouring more and more power through his staff and into Riku, "But I can leave you with a small gift that will likely be useful beyond anyone's expectations. Riku... surely, you remember the special clothes that Sora wore in his battles against Organization XIII?"

"Yeah," Riku said, "The ones that let him fuse with Donald and Goofy in battle... I remember those."

"Then you will know exactly how to use my gift," the wizard said, lifting his staff up and causing Riku to be surrounded by a strange, metallic-blue glow. The light became so bright that only Riku's shape could be seen, and strange arcs of blue electricity surrounded his body for several seconds before being absorbed into his clothes.

When the blue lights cleared, Riku was still wearing his old brown coat and hat. At first, it seemed that nothing had changed--but then, he pulled the coat open and looked down at his shirt and pants. They looked somewhat similar to the way they were before, but now were brand-new and decorated with various unfamiliar symbols. On his chest as another symbol, which felt familiar even though he had never seen it before.

It was a black circle, with an arrow pointing downward from its center. There were also two "arms" sticking out from its side, with arrows pointing down from them as well. Riku removed his coat, and another symbol became visible, this one on his back. It looked similar to the first, but it was more oval rather than round, and the "arms" were bent slightly, with their arrows pointing up rather than down.

"Those symbols, Riku, are ones you should know well," Dorga said, "Darkness and Light, in their purest forms... two sides of the same coin. The two of them are your sources of power."

Riku and Mickey were silent as Dorga walked away, somehow moving faster than an old man would ever be expected to move despite not actually running at all. As the old wizard disappeared over the horizon, Riku put his coat on again and adjusted his hat, and then he and the King headed back toward the location of their Gummi Ship.


	23. Chapter 18: Donald and Goofy

**Author's Note:** Chapter names are starting to get harder and harder to think up, so I've decided to just ditch them. Plus, that way, nobody can guess what happens in a chapter without even reading it anymore. Heh heh...

* * *

**Chapter 18**

Donald and Goofy entered the room, and Sora hopped out of his throne and ran in their direction. The duck and dog began to run toward him as well, hugging him as they met in the middle of the room. It was the first time the three had met since he had married Kairi, so obviously, they were all happy to see each other.

"Gawrsh, Sora," Goofy said, looking up and noticing Sora's height, "Ya sure have grown up since the last time we were here!"

"Yeah," he said, scratching his head, "I remember back when you were taller than I was, Goofy!"

The three laughed a little, before Donald tugged on Goofy's sleeve a little, causing him to stop. Sora followed not long afterward, and he looked down, waiting for one of them to say something.

"What's the matter, Donald?", he asked looking down to the rather small duck.

"Well, that's the real reason we came," he said, tapping his foot on the floor slightly, "The King's gone missing again, and he didn't even leave us a note this time."

At the other end of the room, Kairi's eyes suddenly perked up, looking over toward Sora and his friends. Her eyes flickered for several seconds, and she smiled once before getting up and walking to another room.

* * *

While Sora, Donald, and Goofy talked about the King's disappearance and caught up with each other's lives, Kairi quickly walked down the hall leading away from the throne room, approaching a room with a golden door. She glanced at the door once, her eyes flickering, and it swung open suddenly.

Inside the room where the three armored knights, though none of them were wearing their helmets. The tallest of the three had bright-blue eyes which almost seemed to glow, as well as medium-length brownish hair that hung down in most places, including a few strands in front of his face. The others were turned away, looking out the windows.

"My Queen," the three said, standing up and bowing as they noticed Kairi's presence in the room. The shorter male knight of the group, who had short, dark-green hair and a goatee, shoved the chair he had been sitting in out of the way, causing an annoying scraping noise. The only female of the group, who had long, neon-green hair worn in a ponytail, glared at him for a second before carefully sliding her own chair under the table as well.

"Warriors of Light," she said, her voice becoming distorted and much deeper as she spoke, "A new crack in the defenses of the enemy has opened. We must change our plan in order to take advantage of this..."

"What has changed?", the tallest knight said, putting his helmet back on, "And what part of our plan must be changed to match it?"

"The King of Disney Castle has gone missing... leaving Disney Castle open. The fools, Donald and Goofy, will prove quite useful in this change of plans... if we act quickly, everything will be in place before the mouse King returns with the boy who is to be heir to the Warrior of Darkness."

"Donald Duck is one of us, correct?", the female knight said, pulling her hair up to fit it inside her helmet, "But Goofy... that one cannot yet be trusted. We cannot let either of them know exactly what will happen, or they may turn against us."

"Yes," Kairi said, "They have not yet been purified of all Darkness, and still are vulnerable to its influence... but that will soon change."

"You want us to perform the ritual of purification on the two?", the tallest knight asked. Kairi nodded, her eyes now glowing brightly.

"Yes... purify the two fools of their Darkness. Though they will not yet turn against their King, they will gladly rid themselves of the Dark..."

"And then," the knight with the goatee said, putting on his helmet, "As they come further and further into the Light, they will become as we are."

"Correct," the female knight said, "We cannot allow them to lose their hearts, as the Nobodies that would create would prove troublesome... but one does not have to be a being of heart alone to serve Gil-Neithev."

Kairi paced about the room for several minutes, before noticing that Sora, Donald, and Goofy were heading back toward the thrones. She lifted a hand toward the door, causing it to slam shut again, and then turned back toward the knights.

"Prepare an appropriate Shin'an for the death of Riku," she said, "Donald and Goofy will need to take the creature with them when they return, so be sure to choose one which will fit in a Gummi Ship's storage area."

* * *

"So, what're we gonna do about the King going missing?", Goofy asked, looking over to Sora again, "Just wait for him to come back?"

"Yeah," Sora said, sitting down on his throne, "That'd probably be the best thing you can do for now. There's not many Heartless or Nobodies around anymore, and we haven't seen any sign of Pete or Maleficent since the last time they tried to take over, so everything should be okay."

"Yeah, I guess so," Donald said, "I just thought that if the King's gone, somethin' must've happened to him."

Kairi suddenly came through the door, walking over and sitting down in her throne. Donald and Goofy both bowed, and she smiled, looking down toward them.

"Kairi!", Goofy and Donald both shouted.

"And I thought _Sora_ looked different! Kairi, you've _really_ grown up now, a-hyuck!"

"You were asking about what to do while the King is gone, right?", she asked. Her voice had returned to normal, and her eyes had stopped glowing, but there was still a strange look on her face that made her not quite seem like herself. Goofy noticed that her eyes looked a little strange, but decided it would be better not to mention it.

"Yeah," Donald said, "We thought that maybe you could do somethin' to help us out. You know, so we don't accidently do somethin' that would help the Darkness take over."

The tallest of the three knights, carrying a strange book in one hand and what appeared to be a bag containing several small crystals in the other, suddenly stepped into the room.

"Such as purifying the two of you... removing every last bit of Darkness that plagues your existence?", the knight said, walking over toward the two.

"Well, gawrsh... you can really do somethin' like that?"

"Yes. This will only take a few minutes... just stand still and repeat every word I say."

Donald and Goofy stood in front of the knight, who flipped open the book an held out two small crystals. One crystal floated off the ground, stopping directly above Goofy, while the other drifted over to the area several feet above Donald's head. The knight began chanting strange words out of the book in a deep voice, and Donald and Goofy seemed to go into a trance, repeating the words slowly.

As the ritual went on, the crystals began to darken in color, and a glowing aura built up around the duck and the dog below them. The knight finally stopped, slamming the book shut, and the crystals shattered, sending two puffs of black smoke floating up into the air. The aura of light around Donald and Goofy stayed in place for a few seconds before flickering away and disappearing.

"It is complete," the knight said, turning away and walking back toward the hallway, "Now, Donald and Goofy... Return to your homeworld and await your King's return."

"Yes, sir!", the two said, giving the knight an exaggerated salute. The two walked away after saying goodbye to Sora and Kairi, heading for the location where their Gummi Ship was parked. Kairi left Sora's side once again, following the knight as he headed back toward the room with the golden door.

She stopped the knight before he entered, her voice shifting once again to the deeper, strange-sounding one as she spoke.

"I suppose the plan is underway, then?"

"Yes, my Queen. The Shin'an we have chosen is in place on the fools' Gummi Ship, hidden from view."

"Good... soon, we will be rid of both that meddlesome King _and_ the heir to Xehanort... and all without anyone ever suspecting a thing."

"Yes. And soon, the day will come when all the worlds will bow to you... Gil-Neithev."


	24. Chapter 19: Training

**Chapter 19**

There was a muffled shriek, and then only silence... all except for the skitter of many legs, heading away from the bed, across the floor, and out the open window of the castle, leaving a glowing trail as they went.

A floating, glowing-pink object drifted upward away from the bed, wandering aimlessly in midair for several seconds before it, too, began to head out of the window, apparently following the trail of glowing footprints leading out. As soon as it passed through the window and began to dive downward, there was a burst of light, illuminating the room.

On the bed lay the corpses of a married couple, dressed in expensive-looking bedclothes which were now soaked in blood. Their bodies were untouched, all except for a single large puncture wound in the chest.

And outside, though it was barely an hour after nightfall, it looked as if the sun was rising...

* * *

Zexion paced back and forth outside of one of the unused rooms on the floor where Saix's room once was, listening as Lexaeus and Michiko began their third training session of the day. It was probably growing dark outside, but due to the fact that the floor he was on was several levels underground, it was impossible to tell--the windows were always dark here, as the only thing you could see out of them was several tons of dirt and rock.

There was a loud crash from inside the empty room, and he peeked in for a second. It was as he had suspected--Lexaeus was beginning to teach the girl some more advanced defensive techniques. Currently, he was uprooting rocks from outside and flinging them at her.

A rock about twice the size of Lexaeus' head went bouncing across the room, but it was shattered into a million pieces by a strike from Michiko's Keyblade. She closed her eyes for a second as the shards of rock flew past, and was nearly smashed by an even larger rock at that moment. However, the rock didn't knock her over--it only shoved her back toward the wall several feet before being thrown off and leaving a massive dent in one of the walls.

"Hmm... well, Marluxia definitely wouldn't like _that,_" Zexion mumbled, still watching the whole time, "That is, if he were still here at all..."

The rocks came faster and in larger numbers, but still Michiko managed to block them. She was beginning to regain the speed that she had shown in her battle with Xigbar all those years ago--at some points, her Keyblade was only visible as a silvery-gray blur as it spun and slashed through the rocks, sending bits of stone scattering all over the floor.

Before long, the floor was coated in brownish-gray dust and small chunks of rock. Michiko, for a moment resembling the overconfident girl she was the first time we had met, began to spin her Keyblade around rapidly, whipping up a gust of wind that sent the rocks into the air--and toward Lexaeus. For a few minutes, it became impossible to see anything in the room through the dust flying through the air.

"You're doing well," Lexaeus said, emerging from the spray of rocks and wind without even so much as a scratch on his cloak, "But it's still a bit too early for you to be trying anything like that, Michiko." He reached up to brush the dust off of his cloak, sending it back to the floor once again.

The girl hung her head slightly, apparently expecting that attack to at least be strong enough that her teacher would have to block it rather than just shrugging it off. A moment later, she was back to her usual self, waiting for her training to continue.

"It's growing late. That will be all for today," Lexaeus said, "Though you are now a Nobody, you are still just as capable of being worn out as anyone... you should get some sleep."

Michiko ran off, apparently not tired at all, and headed toward her room. At least, it was her room now--formerly, the room had belonged to Marluxia, but she had taken over it in the time she had lived here. Though Zexion was never really a fan of Marluxia's decorating, he could see why someone would choose his room over the others--for one thing, Marluxia had the largest bed in the castle... and he was notorious for keeping his room (and everything else, if possible) as clean as it could be.

While some of the other rooms--most likely those belonging to Demyx, Axel, and Xigbar--would likely be crawling with cockroaches by now, Marluxia's room was still nearly as clean as its original owner had left it, with the exception of a thin layer of dust which had developed.

Lexaeus walked out of the room several minutes later, after returning the dust and shards to their original shape and returning the rocks to their places in the dirt outside the windows. He stopped in the hallway a few feet away from Zexion.

"She's still improving," the large man said, examining several new bruises on his arms, "Before long, I'll have to put some real power into these training sessions--or I'll come out with a bit more than bruises."

"So she's nearly caught up to her previous strength, then?", the shorter man asked, brushing his hair out of his eyes with one hand. It was becoming more and more obvious that he hadn't cut his hair once in the entire time he had been in his cloned body--while normally, the hair only hung over one side of his face, it was now starting to grow longer on the other side as well.

"Yes... she's getting close," Lexaeus said, "Though her speed has not yet returned, her Keyblade strikes are nearly as strong as when she fought us nearly twenty years ago. And once she learns to control her powers, amplifying her strength even further..."

"She might become one of the strongest among us," Zexion said, finishing Lexaeus' sentence for him. The two began to walk down the hall away from the training room, heading off toward their own rooms.

"Now, there's only one problem," Lexaeus said, "What do we do after her training is complete?"

* * *

The Blue Turtle ducked away from the window, dashing off into a dark alley and rolling behind a Dumpster before he could be seen by the guards. He had just finished spying on the Destiny Islands royalty--and, for once, the mission had paid off.

As he rolled the trash recepticle out of the way and entered the secret passage underneath it, he thought over the things he had heard today. One thing stood out in his mind--one _word,_ even. _Shin'an._ What did it mean? He had only heard the word mentioned a few times, by the armored Keyblade-wielding knights who had shown up recently--but nobody had ever stopped to explain its meaning to anyone else.

He climbed down the ladder leading into the Underground, flashing the turtle tattoo on his arm to the guards as a means of identification. Nobody else on the islands had a tattoo like that, after all--especially not anyone aboveground, since one of the Laws of Gil-Neithev forbid them from getting a tattoo at all.

Not long after entering, he met up with several other people of high ranks in the Underground--Alekia and Alberto, who were standing up against one of the walls, and Pwibby, who was reading something out of an old book and occasionally scribbling something down on one of the pages.

"So, what'd ya find out up there?", Alberto asked, stepping away from the wall, "Any more info on those knights who showed up last night?"

"Not exactly," the old man said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small note he had written to himself, "But I overheard somethin' about their plan. They're sending something to some place on another world... 'Disney Castle,' or somethin' like that. But I'm not sure exactly what they're sending."

"Is that all?", Alekia said, lowering her sunglasses slightly. She looked almost bored, though it was hard to tell--the robotic eye was such a distraction that it was hard to tell what she was thinking.

"Not quite... there's one word they said that has me thinkin'," the Blue Turtle said, folding up the note and flipping it on the other side, "_Shin'an._ They only said it a couple times, but that's what they were gonna send to Disney Castle... and somethin' tells me it's not good."

Pwibby looked up from her book, putting her pen down for a second and looking over toward the other three.

"Shin'an," she mumbled, "Is that what it was? Something sounds familiar about that."

Everyone turned toward her, with Alberto walking over behind her and reading the book over her shoulder. She flipped through the book for a few minutes, apparently searching for something, and then picked up her pen again, underlining a few words with thick, black lines.

"Shin'an... apparently some kind of servants to Gil-Neihev, if what this book says can be trusted," she said, reading over the lines she had underlined, "And... oh, here's something! They're apparently beings of Light that manifest in the forms of insects... from the hearts of the dead."

"So," Alberto said, "These Shin'an things, whatever they are, pop up whenever one of those fanatics up there gets knocked off?"

"As far as I can tell," Pwibby answered, reading over a few more lines in the book, "Then again, this _is_ a book written and published by followers of Gil-Neithev... it most likely isn't the whole truth."

* * *

Pete waddled back and forth, pacing around in the gray hallways of the Castle That Never Was. Ever since Maleficent had found out about what Xemnas had done to Kingdom Hearts, she had gone completely out of control--often setting random things ablaze with her magical green flames, or blasting away chunks of the wall only to bring them back again later.

As if that wasn't bad enough, her mood swings often went the other way as well. She locked herself in her room for hours--or even days--at a time, not allowing anyone else to enter. Even her pet raven, Diablo, was often forced out of her room and fluttered throughout the hallways, looking for another place to stay.

Even on the few days when she wasn't enraged or depressed, it seemed that the witch had finally snapped. She would babble incessantly about how she needed to find the "_true_ Kingdom Hearts," suggesting that the one Xemnas had absorbed had somehow been a "fake." She constantly argued with herself over whether or not Kingdom Hearts truly was the "Heart of All Worlds," as it had often been called--though everything she had known before said that this was true, everything she could see in the present said that it was not.

She had gathered up a new group of allies in hopes that one of them would know something about the "true Kingdom Hearts" that she was now obsessed with, but no matter how many joined her cause, none could find any information claiming that there had ever been more than one--the Kingdom Hearts which hung over the World That Never Was, which had been absorbed by Xemnas and destroyed along with him, was indeed the only one of its kind.

Pete leaned on one of the railings, which somehow supported his massive weight even though it looked incredibly fragile. A humanoid lion, wearing royal-looking robes and a crown, walked over toward him, stopping to lean on the same railing and looking out over the dark city. He was followed several seconds afterward by a snake wearing a hat, who slithered up around the bars of the railing in order to sit on top of it.

"So, you guys gonna stick around now that Maleficent's gone nuts?", Pete asked, turning toward the other two, "Or are you gonna go runnin' back to your mommy, or somethin'?"

At the mention of the word "mommy," the lion in robes suddenly cried out and began sucking his thumb furiously. Both Pete and the snake looked at him funny, though the snake quickly stopped, apparently afraid that the lion would see him.

"Sheesh," Pete said, shoving the two out of the way and stomping off, "She's gotta be nuts now, if she thinks hirin' wimps like you two is gonna help."

The lion growled and began to get up and come after him, but before he could take more than a step, his crown slipped over his eyes and caused him to trip on his robes, falling flat on his face. Pete looked back at him for a moment, pointing and laughing, before he began plodding away down the hall once again.


	25. Chapter 20: Arrivals

**Chapter 20**

Donald and Goofy's Gummi Ship landed safely in the hangar, and the two hopped out of the ship, not even thinking to check the ship for problems before they walked away. After all, that was Chip and Dale's job, right? And there couldn't be anything _bad_ going on--the Cornerstone of Light kept any evil being from entering the castle!

Or so they thought. In reality, the Cornerstone only prevented beings of Darkness from entering--and, unfortunately for Chip and Dale, that wasn't what they had to worry about. Just as the two chipmunks entered the ship for its daily checkup, an unnatural-looking glow began to shine from the door to the ship's storage area. Not expecting anything out of the ordinary, they opened the door, revealing a large, bipedal insect-like creature curled up inside.

The two weren't even able to open their mouths to call for help before they were each impaled through the chest by one of the creature's sharp claws.

Shortly afterward, two tiny pink hearts drifted up out of the chipmunks' lifeless bodies, each clinging near to the glowing creature that had removed them. There were two small flashes of light, and then the hearts were gone, replaced by two white-skinned, cricket-like creatures.

Disney Castle was now in more danger than it had been in a very long time, whether anyone inside knew it or not.

* * *

At about the same time, the Gummi Ship piloted by Riku and King Mickey was heading away from the Twilight World, leaving through the blue-tinted crystal door and floating off into space.

"So," Riku asked, "What do we do now? I can't go back home now... not as long as Gil-Neithev's still around."

"Well," Mickey said, "How about we go back to the castle? It should be a little safer there."

"Yeah... it _should_ be," Riku said, stopping for a while before continuing. "Sorry about that. This whole thing just has me in a bad mood."

"I know what you're talkin' about there," Mickey said, looking over toward Riku, "This Gil-Neithev mess looks like it's gonna be worse than anything we've seen before... but we've got to keep trying, no matter how bad it gets."

* * *

Contrary to popular belief, Twilight Town's sky actually _did_ get darker at night--rather than a bright, orange-hued sunset, Twilight Town's sky at night resembled the last few minutes of a sunset, sinking down over the horizon as the sky grew dark.

Except, it never really went past that point. Instead of being frozen in the middle of sunset, the sky was frozen at the end of it--it still didn't quite _look_ like it was night, but it wasn't quite daytime either.

Roxas was still awake, lying on his bed, when his alarm clock went off, signifying that it was nearly midnight. He reached over and turned the alarm off before hopping out of bed and slipping his usual clothes back on. He summoned his two Keyblades, illuminating the room with lights and flames for a second, and then slipped them into the straps across his back.

Hopefully, he wouldn't need to use them--but it was always better to be safe.

He left the house, walking down the half-darkened streets of Twilight Town. When he passed by houses where anyone lived, he would stay in the shadows, sneaking past them and making sure nobody saw him. Other times, when he was sure nobody was around, he would start running. After all, he didn't want to be late.

Several minutes passed before he made it to the woods. The pine trees looked especially creepy at night--even though it wasn't completely dark, it was still dark enough to make the trees seem like something would jump out from their branches at any moment.

But, of course, nothing ever did. Roxas passed through the woods safely, pushing the vines and weeds out of his way as he finally reached the mansion's gate. Looking up to the second-floor windows, he noticed that the lights were on in one room--Naminé's room--even though the rest of the building was dark.

For a second, Roxas felt more nervous than he had in years. He was finally going to see Naminé again--for the first time in nearly ten years--but he didn't know what to expect.

After a few minutes of just standing around, he finally managed to reach up and open the front door of the mansion, taking a few steps into the building. The door to Naminé's white room was apparently open, as the light from that room was pouring into the lower floor's front room as well. That made it a little easier to walk up the stairs without tripping, even with the thick layer of dust that still coated the whole place.

Roxas climbed up the stairs slowly, holding onto the handrails the whole way. He kept one hand ready to draw one of his Keyblades, just in case something happened--even though he knew Naminé wouldn't do anything to hurt him, he also remembered the glowing insect-creatures that lurked in the area.

It seemed like it took forever to get to the door he was headed for, but actually only a few minutes had passed. He slowly peeked around the doorframe, looking into the white room and noticing the pictures covering the wall, just like the last time he had been here.

Except this time, the person who had drawn them was there as well. Her back was turned to the door, and her hair had grown even longer than it was before, hanging halfway down her back and almost covering the back part of the chair she sat in. She was wearing a white dress and sandals, as always, but now the dress was a much longer one and her sandals were a more normal-looking brown, rather than blue.

Naminé had also grown up--_a lot_--since the last time Roxas had seen her. She seemed to have grown nearly a foot in height since then, and there were... _other_ changes, as well. She definitely wasn't such a tiny little girl anymore. Roxas just stood there and watched her draw, blushing slightly, for several minutes. Finally, she put the pen down on the table, and Roxas decided to take a step through the door.

Just as Roxas entered the room, she stood up out of her chair before turning around and smiling at him. The same smile she always had when he visited her in Castle Oblivion, coming up with all those crazy ideas for things she could draw. He ran up to hug her...

And then passed right through, as if she wasn't there at all.

* * *

Michiko wasn't able to sleep. She just tossed and turned on Marluxia's old bed, still full of energy from today's training session--she was getting stronger, but since she didn't know how to control her powers yet, she always ended up pumping herself full of extra energy and then having nothing to do with it.

So she got out of bed and went for a walk. It wasn't much of a walk, since she had to stay inside Castle Oblivion, but it was better than just lying there trying to get to sleep. Several minutes passed, and she had already reached the bottom floor.

"Wow... well, that was quick," she said, looking around and noticing where she was, "I must've been walking faster than I thought..."

It was then that she noticed that someone else was still up--Vexen, who was still working on something with his lab. While most people Vexen's age found it harder and harder to stay up late, the old scientist was somehow able to stay up hours after dark without even getting drowsy.

Must be something in those avocados.

Michiko walked over to Vexen's lab, peeking into it, when suddenly he jumped up in shock, munching on what seemed to be a raw avocado while staring intently at a computer screen. Wondering what it was that had shocked him so much, she walked into the room.

"What's going on?", she asked, approaching the older man, "And how can you eat those _things_ raw? Ewww..."

"Forget the avocados for now," Vexen said, "Look at the screen. Do you see anything different than normal?"

The girl walked a little bit closer, looking at the screen. Vexen first set the screen to show the positions of everyone in Twilight Town, and nothing looked particularly strange. Then he turned off the settings for displaying Heartless. A few dots here and there disappeared. Next went the dots that detected the creatures of Light which had appeared recently, which were a bit higher in number than the Heartless. Next, he turned off the setting for Nobodies, causing a fair number of dots to vanish--including one of the two in the old mansion.

"And now," he said, "Watch the mansion _very_ carefully."

He turned off the setting for complete beings--the last setting that was still turned on. Hundreds or even thousands of dots on the screen suddenly went dark, leaving only one of the dots visible...

It was the second dot from the old mansion.


	26. Chapter 21: Naminé

**Chapter 21**

Roxas nearly tripped over the chair Naminé had been sitting in, sending it crashing onto the floor. He grabbed the edge of the table, pulling himself up by it, and then picked the chair back up.

"Naminé," he said, turning around to look at the girl, "You're... I mean... what's going on?"

She looked at him, her smile fading away quickly, and walked through the table, sitting down in the other chair. Roxas noticed, and then sat down in the chair Naminé had been sitting in before.

"I'm sorry, Roxas... this is the most I can do now," she said, picking up the picture she had just finished drawing, "I haven't exactly been myself lately."

"What do you mean?"

"You should remember... what happened when you were in Sora for too long. You started to lose consciousness, slowly, piece-by-piece, until there was nothing left but the Light..."

"That... happened to _you,_ too?"

"No. I'm... not like other Nobodies, Roxas. DiZ had a suspicion that I was somehow different, but he never managed to find out why... but now I know."

She held up the newly-finished picture, passing it over toward Roxas. Kairi and Naminé were both in the picture, drawn in perfect detail, but hovering in the distance behind the two girls there was _something else._ It wasn't much more than a vague, fuzzy outline--a long-bodied creature, with two arms and sharp claws. It seemed to be surrounded by a bright light, which was illuminating Kairi and creating a slight glow around Naminé.

"I've seen that thing before..."

Roxas stared at the picture for several minutes, trying to remember where he had seen it before. He looked around the room for a second, before finally standing up and looking back toward the door. He then sat down and asked Naminé about it.

"That monster... it's the one from that picture over the door, isn't it?"

"Yes... that creature is Gil-Neithev. Those creatures of Light that you fight now--they are the Shin'an, the white swarm... servants of Gil-Neithev."

"Gil-Neithev..."

Roxas looked around, noticing that there were now several other pictures in the room that weren't there the last time. They were familiar--there were several pictures of every kind of the glowing insects he had encountered so far.

"But... how do you know about all this? You're Kairi's Nobody... right? What does she have to do with all this?"

"I don't think I can truly call myself Kairi's Nobody... not now, now that I know my true origin."

She stood up and walked over to the wall, taking one of the pictures off of it and then walking back toward Roxas. The picture showed an unconscious Kairi, but there was something else--a glowing sphere of energy, entering Kairi's body through her chest just as her heart left it.

"I'm not like other Nobodies, because I am not only the Nobody of Kairi... I was partially born from Gil-Neithev as well."

Naminé sat down again before continuing, handing the picture to Roxas.

"When Kairi's heart left her body, that night on the islands... something _happened._ Just as her body was beginning to fade away, to create a Nobody... Gil-Neithev had been freed from his prison in the heart of the world and attempted to enter the body."

"Kairi's heart managed to find safety within Sora's... but her body and Gil-Neithev became intertwined. When the body faded out of the World of Light to become a Nobody, a piece of Gil-Neithev was taken along with it. The rest of Gil-Neithev was disrupted, sent into a dormant state... and took the form of Kairi's unconscious body."

* * *

Riku and the King's Gummi Ship drifted into the hangar at Disney Castle, having to slow down to avoid slamming into another ship that was already parked there. Apparently, whoever had used that ship last had forgotten to move it from the place it was parked.

"Probably just Goofy teaching his son how to drive," Mickey said, helping Riku steer the ship into another parking spot, "Max always forgets to move the ship out of the way."

"Hmm," Riku said, "Well, he's got to learn someday, right? Let's park over there... we can always move the other ship out later."

The Gummi Ship slowly landed, sitting on the platform at an odd angle to avoid bumping into another ship. As soon as the doors opened, Riku hopped out, and immediately he noticed that all was not well in the castle. That strange smell, which he had detected nearly everywhere in the city that now covered Destiny Islands, was in the air--and it was incredibly strong, as if whatever had left it was still close.

"Be careful," he said, looking down to the King after both of them had left the ship, "Something just isn't right here... I can smell it."

* * *

In the room behind the golden door, the three knights sat and waited. They were awaiting the arrival of a new--and incredibly powerful--Shin'an, born from the heart of one who contained no Darkness... a Princess of Heart.

"So the rumor was true, then," the female knight said, "The heart of one of the Princesses gave birth to a Shin'an greater than any created before?"

"Not exactly," the tallest knight answered, "There is but one Shin'an more powerful than the one born from the Princess. You know him as the King of these islands... Sora."

"Ah," she said, "I had forgotten about Sora's state. How unfortunate, that we were unable to destroy the Nobody before it became a problem."

"If Roxas had been killed then, Sora would have never chosen to follow Gil-Neithev," the shorter knight said, fiddling with what appeared to be a necklace.

"True," the female said, "Sora is far from intelligent, but he has a strong will to protect those he cares about... destroying a part of his own being, however worthless that part may be, would enrage him beyond belief."

Suddenly, a bright light began to form on the other side of the room, causing all three of the knights to turn and look toward it. The new Shin'an, the first of its kind, was finally arriving.

The spot of bright light soon widened, forming a door of white light reaching from the floor to the celing. The entire room was lit, but the knights never looked away--the visors on their helmets made even this light, which would nearly blind a normal person, bearable.

Several seconds passed, and then a creature began to emerge from the door. It was still essentially humanoid in shape, closely resembling the form of a woman, but its body was red and almost translucent. Rather than hair, a mass of tentacles grew from the back of the creature's head, and there were two long antennae sprouting out from its forehead. There were three pairs of wings, resembling those of a butterfly but composed entirely of energy, growing out of its back. Growing out of its lower back and wrapping around its lower body almost like a dress was a seventh wing, this one distorted in shape and probably useless for flying.

The light from the door finally began to fade, followed shortly afterward by the disappearance of the door itself. The new Shin'an could be seen clearly by the three knights, and it floated about a foot above the floor, chittering and humming quietly.

"Quite a transformation, don't you think?", the shorter of the two male knights said, dropping the necklace for a second and ignoring it for the first time in favor of staring at the glowing-red insect-woman that was now floating in the room.

"Yes... quite a transformation, indeed," the tallest knight said, "As a human, you were not even able to fight off your pitiful stepsisters... but now, as one of the Shin'an, you are among the most powerful of your kind."

"Welcome to Gil-Neithev's elite, Cinderella," the female knight said, "Or, should I say... Shin'an Cendrillon."


	27. Chapter 22: Creeping

**Chapter 22**

Riku and Mickey carefully walked along the halls of Disney Castle, both ready to summon their Keyblades at any second. Actually, Riku had already summoned his--he held one of his hands inside of his coat, hiding the Way to the Dawn within it.

"Everything _seems_ normal," Riku said, looking around, "But that weird smell, whatever it is... it's still here, and it's just as strong as it was when we first got here."

The two passed by several humanoid ducks, who were squawking on and on about something in their strange accents that made it hard to tell exactly what was being said. Goofy's son, Max, ran along one of the halls, chasing after what appeared to be a baseball that was rolling along the floor. Riku was right--everything _seemed_ to be perfectly normal.

For a second, Riku thought he heard the sound of something small skittering around nearby. He whipped out his Keyblade suddenly, looking around, but there was nothing there. Mickey looked at him funny for a second, and then Riku put his Keyblade away again and the two continued to walk down the hall.

"Did you hear that?", Riku asked, looking down toward Mickey, "It sounded like something crawling around somewhere, but..."

"Yeah... something's in here, that's for sure," Mickey said, "We'd better get looking for it before anything bad happens."

Several minutes passed, and Mickey bumped into Donald and Goofy in one of the hallways. Rather than the clothes they had worn during their journeys with Sora, the two of them were wearing their old uniforms again--they had been staying in the castle for years now, after all. Mickey stopped to talk to the two of them, and Riku kept going, searching the castle for whatever it was that he had heard.

As he walked through the halls, he heard the sound of something crawling around in the distance several times, but whenever he would pause to listen for it, the sound would suddenly stop.

"Great," Riku said to himself, "Whatever's in here, it knows I'm looking for it..."

* * *

"Naminé," Roxas said, "Why did I just pass through you earlier?"

The girl looked down for a second, and for a moment it seemed she was going to cry. Roxas walked over to her, trying to put his hand on her shoulder, but it just passed through her again. A single tear fell from each of Naminé's eyes, but instead of hitting the table, they passed right through like they weren't there at all.

"I'm... I'm not really here," she said, "I'm still trapped within Kairi, unable to exist on my own... the only reason I've survived this long is because of Gil-Neithev. If I was only Kairi's Nobody, I..."

"You'd just... fade away, in the Light... like I almost did."

"Yes... the only reason that never happened was the piece of Gil-Neithev that became part of me."

"But Gil-Neithev... he's evil, right?"

"Of course. If Gil-Neithev had any way of destroying me without harming himself at the same time... I wouldn't be here right now at all... not even just as an image."

"But... if you're not really here... I don't understand..."

"That's why I asked you to come back after midnight," Naminé answered, standing up and looking at Roxas. Though she was only an image, it was hard to tell--she certainly _looked_ real.

"If I had tried to meet with you when Kairi was still awake... Gil-Neithev would know. And that would make you a target--the Shin'an wouldn't just attack one or two at a time. They'd destroy Twilight Town just to get rid of you, if Gil-Neithev knew what I was telling you."

"Gil-Neithev..."

"I'm almost out of time, Roxas... but before I go, there's something I need to ask."

"Wh... what is it?"

"Roxas... a key can open doors just as well as it can close them. With your two Keyblades... you could slow down Gil-Neithev significantly."

"What do you mean? How could I..."

"Roxas... go to the World of Light. Undo what Sora has done... and reopen the Door to Darkness."

With that, Naminé began to fade away. Roxas knew it was pointless, but he tried to hug her again anyway--and, just for a second, it seemed that the image of Naminé was in fact the real one, that he had actually touched her instead of just passing through.

And then, she was gone.

* * *

Sora stood in front of the window, looking out over the city at night. There weren't many lights still on in the place, but occasionally he would spot the glow of a Shin'an patrolling the streets for beings of Darkness. Sometimes, he would spot a Heartless crawling along--and, only seconds later, a Shin'an would leap out from somewhere and destroy it, sending the purified heart that was left over drifting away.

He heard Kairi yawn in the other room, and turned back toward the door again for a second, expecting to see her standing there already. But she wasn't--she must have woken up from a dream, or something like that, because she was still lying in the bed.

Earlier that night, he had tried to get in contact with other worlds, and what he had heard from the leaders of those worlds bothered him.

_"The disappearances are increasing lately..."_

That was what Merlin had said, when he had managed to get in contact with Radiant Garden's world. Apparently, people were disappearing from the worlds, and nobody had any idea why. A few of the disappearances were accounted for--most of the Restoration Committee members had gone off to search for Cloud, after he and Sephiroth disappeared in the middle of their battle ten years earlier. But many more were completely unexplained.

Though Scrooge McDuck and his three grand-nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie were still around, others had vanished--Scrooge's adopted daughter Webbigail hadn't been seen in over a month, and the Moogle population of the city had dwindled in the past years. _Something_ was definitely going on, but Sora had no idea _what._ It couldn't be the Heartless or Nobodies again, but...

"So, what's been keeping you up this late?", Kairi asked, walking up to him suddenly and hugging him from behind. Suddenly, Sora's train of thought was thrown off--he remembered thinking about the disappearances lately, but he couldn't remember what came after that.

"Nothing really... I was just wondering what's been going on back at Radiant Garden lately," he said, "I talked to Merlin a while ago, and he mentioned that people have been disappearing."

"Hmm," Kairi said, hanging off of Sora's shoulders, "Sounds like the Heartless are coming back again, doesn't it?"

"Yeah... that's probably it," he said, removing Kairi's arms from around his neck and turning around, "They attacked Radiant Garden first all those years ago... so I guess if they were going to attack again, that's where they'd start."

"Let's talk about it in the morning," Kairi said, grabbing Sora's hand and leading him back to their bed, "It's not good for you to stay up late thinking about things, after all."

* * *

"It's gone," Vexen said, pounding one hand on the table, "The second dot from the mansion... it just disappeared without a trace!"

"What's going on?", Michiko asked, walking over and looking at the screen again. Just as Vexen said, the second dot from the mansion was gone--and the first dot was leaving the building, as well.

"There's no sign that whoever it was escaped through the Dark Passage," Vexen mumbled, writing something down in a notebook as he went, "And there's no leftover traces of energy at all... not Light, Darkness, or anything else..."

"So... what do you think it was?"

"I... I hate to say this, but... I don't know."


	28. Chapter 23: The Shin'an

**Chapter 23**

Riku walked throughout the halls, trying to follow the strange smell and the sound of something crawling, but no matter how much he searched, it never seemed to get anywhere. If he stopped to listen, the sound of something crawling around would stop as well; and the smell wasn't helping, as it seemed to always be just as strong no matter where he went.

He was about to turn down another hallway when he heard a scream coming from the direction of the Gummi hangar--and, by the sound of it, it was Donald Duck, or at least _a_ duck, screaming. He spun around and started running back the way he came, but before he was even halfway there, he heard a crash behind him. Several stone blocks from the wall came flying out, nearly slamming into him, but he rolled out of the way just in time to avoid them.

"What the hell was..."

He stood up, turning around, and immediately found the answer to his question. Standing about ten feet away from him was a large, glowing-white creature, with a long tail that seemed to be tipped with a blade of some sort. Its head resembled that of some sort of insect, but with many tentacles growing from it, and it had several large and very sharp-looking claws on the end of each of its arms.

"Well, _that_ explains the crawling sounds," he said, jumping back a little and pulling the Way to the Dawn out from under his coat. The monster at the other end of the hall lowered its head and let out an extremely loud shriek, sending Riku to the floor, halfway-stunned.

He recovered just in time to roll out of the way of the creature's claws, which tore a chunk out of the floor where he was lying just a second before. He lashed out at the creature with his Keyblade, striking it in the arm, but the attack only made the creature flinch slightly.

The creature screamed again, but this time Riku jumped to the side and the blast of sound missed him entirely. He charged at it with his Keyblade held out in front of him, but it shifted its body to the side slightly, causing him to fly past it instead. He was nearly slashed by the blade on its tail, but he managed to raise his Keyblade to block it just in time, sending a metallic sound echoing throughout the hallways.

Donald and Goofy, apparently hearing the battle, came running down the hallway, both brandishing their weapons. Riku waved to them, dodging out of the way of several more blows from the creature's bladed tail, and the two got into battle stances, preparing to attack the creature that was trying to kill Riku.

Donald waved his staff around, chanting a magic spell, and Goofy charged forward with his shield held outward. The creature caught Goofy by the shield and shoved him backward, knocking Donald off balance as well and breaking his concentration. The two picked themselves up again, but before they could attack, the creature turned its head toward the two and stared at them.

The creature's eyes began to glow brightly, and then there was a flash throughout the room--along with the sound of strange, echoing voice that seemed to be coming from the creature, even though it wasn't even moving its mouth.

"Followers of the Light, cease this foolishness..."

Donald and Goofy were both surrounded by a slight glow for several seconds, and then the two suddenly froze in place. The creature turned its attention away from them, attacking Riku once again. Claws and tail-blades clashed against Riku's Keyblade, but it seemed that even with three weapons against one, the creature couldn't land a solid hit on Riku.

Until, that is, it lashed out with one of its feet, kicking Riku square in the stomach and send him flying backward. He managed to get up, but the creature was upon him again, slashing at his body with the blade on its tail--and this time actually hitting him. He rolled out of the way again, swinging his Keyblade at the creature's leg, but it just hopped into the air and avoided this attack as well.

Riku rushed at the creature with his Keyblade forward again, but as the creature jumped to avoid this attack, he let go of the blade with one hand and fired a burst of Darkness toward it. The creature was hit in the arm, causing it to spasm and twitch uncontrollably for several seconds. Riku spun around and noticed that the creature's arm seemed darker in color, and one of the claws was no longer moving--instead, it hung limply off of the creature's hand like it was dead.

The thing rushed at Riku again, but this time Riku was ready, jumping high into the air and kicking the creature in the back of the head as it passed under him. It was knocked into the wall, but clung to the bricks and lashed out at Riku with its tail several times. He did a flip backwards and fired a massive blast of Darkness toward it, causing it to scream and jump out of the way. The blast, missing the creature, instead blew a chunk out of the wall.

Riku felt something bite down on his leg, and looked down to see that a smaller creature--this one resembling a freakish, glowing-white cricket--had latched onto him. He knocked the creature off with a swing of his Keyblade, sending it slamming into a wall and dissolving into white dust, and then turned his attention back to the larger creature.

It was then that King Mickey came running onto the scene, slamming the creature from behind with his Keyblade several times just as it turned to deal with Riku. The creature, apparently knowing that it was outnumbered, smashed through the wall once again and skittered away.

"What was _THAT?_", Mickey asked, looking over to Riku. He had never seen a creature like that before--and it certainly wasn't any kind of Heartless or Nobody.

"I don't know... but something tells me this thing has something to do with Gil-Neithev," Riku said. He took off his coat, checking himself to see how badly he had been wounded, and found that there were a few small cuts on his arms but little else.

"Seems to be pretty powerful, too," he said, putting some bandages over the worse cuts and then putting his coat back on, "And that smell... it's starting to fade now that the creature isn't around."

"Hmm," Mickey said, looking around at the scene of the battle, "I don't know if it's even possible, but... look at the place where it was standing."

Riku looked over at the last spot the creature stood, noticing that the floor was glowing slightly in the shape of the creature's feet. The place where the creature had smashed through the wall was also glowing, leaving a trail of dim light leading away somewhere deep within the walls of the castle.

"See what I'm talkin' about?", Mickey said, pointing at one of the glowing footprints, "It looks like... this thing's made of Light..."

The small King dematerialized his Keyblade and then looked toward the ground, closing his eyes for a second.

"And that means... even with the Cornerstone of Light, we're not safe here anymore..."

* * *

People stared in fear as the silver-haired man walked past, slowly passing along the edge of the canal and looking around the city. Everyone noticed how ridiculous the single wing sprouting from his shoulder looked, but after the last kid who pointed it out had been impaled, nobody laughed.

Yes, Sephiroth had returned after ten years, and he was searching for something... or someone. Unfortunately, he had also found a few "someones" who he would've rather missed.

Traveling along the canal beside him in a small boat were three more silver-haired men. Actually, silver-haired _teenagers_ was more like it--the three of them couldn't have been much older than 16.

One was taller and more muscular, with short, spiked hair. He was carrying a set of drums, and had drumsticks strapped onto his belt. Another was also tall, but wasn't as muscular and had much longer hair. He carried a guitar case strapped across his chest, and was apparently headbanging along to a song in his head. The third was much shorter, and almost feminine-looking; his hair was between the two others in length, and he was reading something off of a piece of paper.

After a few more minutes of walking (and rowing), Sephiroth turned to the three in the boat and began to watch them. Eventually the three noticed this, and stopped rowing immediately to see what he was going to say.

"Kadaj, Yazoo, Loz," he said, pointing toward the three with his sword, "Would you _please_ stop following me around? _Now._ It's starting to become _very_ annoying."

"Awwww," Loz whined, "But we wanna be minions of Darkness, too!"

"Yeah!", Kadaj said, "Just like you! We even got matching black suits and everything!"

"And weapons," Yazoo said, holding up something that appeared to be some type of squirt gun. Kadaj held up a plastic toy sword, waving it around like it was a real one, and then Loz raised up his hands, showing that he was wearing an old boxing glove on one of them.

"This... this is _completely ridiculous,_" Sephiroth said, slapping himself in the face with one hand and grumbling to himself, "When I was your age, I struck fear into the hearts of millions... and now I leave for a few years, and look what happens!"

The crowds in the street were still staring at the four silver-haired men, but now it was becoming harder and harder for them to keep themselves from laughing. A little boy pointed and whispered something to his mother, who snickered quietly to herself, shutting up suddenly when Sephiroth turned to look at her for a second.

"The sooner we find Cloud, the better," Sephiroth said, and he began to walk off again, with the three teenagers in their boat following.


	29. Chapter 24: Maleficent Returns

**Author's Note:** Sorry about the short-ness of this chapter... I couldn't really figure out any way to add much more to it without going right into Riku's next encounter with the Shin'an in Disney Castle, which would make it a ridiculously long chapter since that fight scene will probably be even longer than the first one! So yeah... short chapter. The next one will probably make up for it.

* * *

**Chapter 24**

"I got here as soon as I could," Mickey said, "Donald and Goofy were telling me how everyone was doing while I was gone, and we went to move that other Gummi Ship out of the way... and..."

"And?", Riku asked, "What's going on?"

"Chip and Dale... they're dead. Just lying there in the ship, stabbed... Donald and Goofy were the last ones who used that ship, but they didn't even know what happened. They both left before Chip and Dale even came in..."

"Hmm," Riku said, turning toward the glowing trail the creature had left behind, "I bet that _thing_ had something to do with this... we've got to find it before it starts going after anyone else."

It was then that Mickey noticed Donald and Goofy standing in the middle of the hallway, stuck in the same positions they had been in last. They looked like statues, except that they weren't made of stone. Mickey ran over to them, trying to shake them out of it, but nothing worked.

"What happened?", he asked, checking Donald's pulse and then moving on to Goofy. "They're both still alive, but..."

"That thing did something to them," Riku said, "I'm not sure what happened... it just looked at them and there was this weird voice, and then they started glowing and... just froze like that."

"Well, if that thing did this... we'd better go after it, or who knows what else might happen."

The King summoned his Keyblade once again, and the two headed off down two different halls, both searching for the strange, glowing insect-monster...

* * *

At about the same time, on a distant world, a dark portal opened and out stepped someone who that world had thought to be long dead. The person who had arrived wore black robes, which brushed along up against the grass as she walked across the field. She held a long staff, and almost seemed to have horns--or possibly it was just a strange hairstyle or some sort of helmet.

Green flames suddenly flared up around the figure and shot forward in a line, going on for as far as the eye could see and clearing a path through the tall grasses.

For the first time in nearly twenty years, Maleficent had returned to her homeworld. This was a place where people still feared her--it was a world whose inhabitants knew nothing of the Keyblade or its wielders, a world that had been destroyed during the first Heartless invasion, before the door to its heart could have been sealed to keep the creatures out.

But now, it was whole once again--between the time it had been devoured and the present, something had happened, though nobody knew exactly what. They had no memory of the event--they remembered the Heartless invasion, but after that point their memories went blank. The last thing they remembered was waking up one morning as if the Heartless were nothing but a dream.

Except, it was obvious that it _wasn't_ just a dream. Some people had disappeared--the ones who had been killed by the Heartless during the invasion. There were other disappearances as well--more suspicious than the rest, as their cause was not known. Three fairies, who had appeared occasionally in the past years, had not been seen since the Heartless attacked. Neither had Maleficent, though she was presumed dead rather than just missing--at least, everyone _hoped_ she was dead.

Those hopes were about to be shattered.

* * *

On the opposite side of the same world, a glowing door of light had appeared. A large creature, resembling some sort of enormous centipede, slithered out from the door, leaving a slight glow behind on the grass-covered ground as it crawled along.

The door closed and vanished, sending the world into the darkness of night once again. The only sources of light were a crescent moon in the sky and the glowing centipede, crawling faster and faster across the field toward a castle.

It reached the castle, slipping behind the guards easily and tearing their heads from their bodies before they knew what hit them. The guards slumped to the ground, no longer able to stand, and the centipede turned around, climbing up the wall where the guards once stood.

It climbed around the entrance to a window, shattering the glass to get in and quickly leaping onto the bed within, where two people were sleeping. Well, they _had_ been sleeping, until the sound of breaking glass awakened them. But they were too late--before either of them were awake enough to do anything, the centipede had impaled them both through the chest with its front legs, sending blood spurting everywhere and soaking the bedsheets.

The creature hopped off of the bodies and began to leave through the broken window, and shortly afterward a pink, flickering heart floated upward from the bed. It spun in midair, slowly picking up speed, and then began to follow the trail of glowing footprints that led out of the castle.

There was an incredibly bright light from outside the castle, illuminating the entire landscape as if the sun had suddenly risen.

Princess Aurora had passed on, and from her heart, another Shin'an was born.


	30. Chapter 25: Second Encounter

**Chapter 25**

Riku and Mickey searched the castle for hours, pacing throughout the halls all night, but there was no sign of the glowing creature that had attacked earlier. It was now well after midnight, and everyone else in the castle was asleep. The entire place was silent, with the only sounds being two sets of footsteps--one heavier, belonging to Riku, and one lighter and with the sound of old shoes squeaking following it, from Mickey.

And then, just for a second, Riku thought he heard a third set of footsteps behind him. He spun around, holding out his Keyblade, but there was nothing there.

He looked closer, turning his attention to the floor, and noticed something else. There _was_ something there, after all--but it had left before he turned around. A set of glowing footprints on the floor just a few feet behind the spot where he was standing... the thing was following _him_ now.

* * *

Somewhere on the other side of the castle, Mickey had also noticed the sounds of something crawling around behind him--and, when he turned around, the result was the same. Nothing there but the footprints that one of those things would have left behind.

He turned around again to head back down the hall he was searching and came face-to-face with a cricket-like creature, much smaller than the huge thing that Riku had been fighting but still fairly large next to Mickey. He looked around and noticed that it was not alone--there were now at least ten of the things.

Just a second ago, there was no sign of even one... but now, they had him surrounded.

Mickey stood in the middle of a circle of strange, glowing cricket-things, holding out his Keyblade and looking around as the creatures began to close in on him. He almost panicked--where had all of them come from? Earlier, it seemed that there was only one of them in the castle--how did so many of them get in this quickly, without anyone noticing?

Mickey's train of thought was broken when one of the creatures shrieked and jumped at him with its front claws held outward. The King flipped to the side, kicking off the wall to propel himself, and swung his Keyblade at it as the two of them were in midair. This knocked the creature to the ground--and Mickey soon followed, stabbing downward onto it with his Keyblade and destroying the creature.

Three more jumped at him, while the rest of the group continued to creep closer and closer. He spun around, swinging his Keyblade in all directions, and managed to knock the creatures away down the hall in all different directions. One of them bounced off the walls several times before it glowed brightly and disappeared in a puff of white dust. The others were still alive, but wounded, and began limping back toward him.

Mickey ran and jumped over the wall of cricket-monsters that blocked his path, striking one of them with his Keyblade on the way over and sending it flying into the group on the other side of the hall and knocking several of them over like bowling pins. The mouse began to run down the hall away from the things, but they soon followed, swarming after him and hopping along the walls to catch up.

The King continued to run down the hall away from the creatures, but they were quickly catching up to him. He was able to knock them back with his Keyblade, but it was impossible to run at full speed and hit at full strength at the same time--and there were too many of them.

He had to find Riku.

* * *

Riku rolled out of the way as a blade rushed past him, nearly slicing into his shoulder. The thing was back--and this time, he had almost been too late in noticing its presence.

"You again," he said, swinging his Keyblade at the thing to drive it back a little bit. It wasn't like it would listen to words, anyway--just like the Heartless, but Light instead of Dark. The creature responded with a shriek that made Riku cover his ears and jump out of the way. The burst of sound shook the wall behind where Riku was standing, shattering a window and sending several loose stones flying.

Riku swung his Keyblade like a bat, smacking one of the bricks in midair and sending it flying into the creature's chest. It bounced off, leaving only a tiny dent in the thing's armored exoskeleton.

The thing jumped toward him, trying to grab him with its claws, but he dove out of the way just in time and the creature almost hit the floor. "Almost," because just before it slammed into the floor, it grabbed on with its claws and propelled itself upward onto the celing. The thing latched onto the celing and began crawling around there, out of Riku's reach.

Riku jumped and bounced off one of the walls, swinging at the creature with his Keyblade, but it just burrowed into the stone above it and avoided the attack completely. A second later, it dug through the celing again in a different spot, falling to the floor again--this time, landing right behind Riku. He started to jump out of the way, but not before one of the creature's claws grabbed his arm.

The thing gripped onto his arm tightly, and began to dig its claws in, when suddenly a Keyblade came flying from out of nowhere and smacked the thing in the face several times, spinning in midair the whole time, before finally flying back down the hall from where it came. Riku was able to pull himself free from the thing's grip, and he too smashed his Keyblade into the creature's head, knocking it backward onto the floor.

It was just standing up again when Mickey came running down the hall, followed by a swarm of smaller, cricket-like creatures. This time, the larger creature didn't run away at the sight of Mickey--instead, it attacked him, lashing out with the blade on its tail and nearly cutting the mouse King's ear.

The King blocked just in time, raising up his Keyblade in front of him and catching the blade in the key-looking part on the end. He pushed the creature's tail away and ran over toward Riku, and the two of them prepared to fight off the swarm of glowing crickets that was coming down the hallway toward them.

"Where in the world did _those_ come from!?", Riku asked, looking down the hall at the dozens of white cricket-monsters. Mickey just shook his head--he didn't know anything more about the situation than Riku did.

As the creatures began to draw closer and closer, Riku suddenly threw off his coat and hat, letting them fall to the floor against the wall behind him. He pointed to his chest, where the symbol of Darkness was emblazoned on his clothes, and held out his hand to Mickey. The King nodded, and reached his hand up to grab Riku's.

The entire castle seemed to shake for a second, and the creatures all stopped where they stood, staring directly at Riku and Mickey. The symbols on Riku's clothes began to glow with a strange, silvery-colored light, and soon Mickey began to glow as well. Blue electricity began to surge up around Riku, and sparks flew off in all directions, further discouraging the creatures from getting any closer. A sphere of bluish-purple energy went up around Riku and the King, filling the entire room with a blue light that caused the glowing insects to squeal and cover their eyes in pain.

When the light cleared, Mickey was nowhere to be seen. Riku stood alone in the hall, now holding a Keyblade in each hand--his own in one hand, and Mickey's in the other. Blue electricity still crawled across his body for several seconds afterward, occasionally leaping off to one of the walls or the floor. His clothes had changed as well, and were now a golden yellow in color. The parts of his pants immediately above his feet were now decorated with a black band that had three crosses on it, with the one in the center a silvery-white color and the other two black. On his shirt, the symbol of Darkness had shifted shape to vaguely resemble a mouse's head, with the two round ears replacing the "arms" and spikes that the symbol originally had.

The smaller creatures rushed down the hall to swarm over Riku, but they were thrown aside like leaves in a tornado as Riku smashed through them with his two Keyblades, filling the entire hallway with glowing white dust for several seconds. He made a sharp turn and came running back toward the larger creature, which held up its claws to block.

The two Keyblades slammed into the two clawed arms, pushing both Riku and the creature backwards. The creature leaped toward him with its tail swinging, but he slashed upward with the Way to the Dawn and severed the blade from the tail's tip, causing the creature to stumble in mid-jump and fall to the floor. The tail blade, no longer connected to its body, immediately dissolved into white dust before disappearing entirely.

Riku rushed at the creature, slamming his two Keyblades into the creature's back over and over. The thing jumped onto a wall to escape, and Riku held out Mickey's Keyblade toward it. Before the creature could smash through the wall, the Keyblade went flying out of Riku's hand like a missile, slamming into the thing's midsection and catching onto it. The Keyblade came spinning back toward Riku like a boomerang, carrying the creature along with it, and he swung his second Keyblade at the thing just as he caught the first Keyblade's handle. The creature fell to the floor once again, twitching and struggling to stand.

"Your kind are not welcome here," Riku said, holding out the Way to the Dawn toward the creature. It began to stand up, but before it had the chance, Riku rushed at it once again. Dark energy began to flare up around him as he slashed at the creature dozens of times from all different directions, knocking the thing around like a punching bag. Bits of the creature were beginning to fall off and dissolve into white dust, just like the tail blade had done earlier. Finally, Riku stopped in front of the creature and raised his Keyblades up into the air. Darkness and electricity surrounded the two blades, and then he slammed them down into the floor in front of the creature.

A burst of purple energy erupted out of the ground, sending sparks flying everywhere and causing the creature to scream out one last time before it began to glow brightly. The dark energy attack began to fade, and the creature's glow faded as well.

As Riku removed the two Keyblades from the ground, the creature's shape twitched once again before falling apart into a mound of white dust.


	31. Chapter 26: Family Feud

**Author's Note:** Sora and Riku have **dads** now! Whee!

* * *

**Chapter 26**

Once again, Roxas dreamt of Naminé. But this time, the dreams were different than usual--when he awakened, there were no new memories that weren't there before. There were no voices echoing in his ears, and he could remember the dream itself much more clearly--not just a fading image of Naminé, but the whole dream.

It was, unlike the previous nights, just a dream. Naminé wasn't _there_ this time, like she had been before--visiting him in his sleep, trying to restore the memories that she had once been forced to erase. Memories of his life on the streets of Twilight Town, of being taken in by Axel of Organization XIII, of meeting their leader, Xemnas, and recieving his new name. Memories of the months he spent as a member of the Organization, of the first battle with Riku, and of his brief stay in Twilight Town before he found himself wandering back to the world where the Organization's base waited.

Memories of his plan to rejoin the Organization, cut short by a second battle with Riku. Memories of DiZ... that bastard who forced Naminé to erase his memories...

He knew the old man was long dead, but Roxas couldn't help but hate DiZ. The things he did to Naminé, forcing her to erase his memory--and later, her own as well--and threatening her with starvation if she refused... all in the pursuit of nothing more than revenge. Revenge against people who had done nothing to him, whose only "crime" was existing when they weren't supposed to. Roxas would never be able to forgive him. It was almost a shame that he had died from an explosion, his own stupid mistake, rather than by a Keyblade-strike to the head.

But that was all over now. Roxas was himself again, thanks to Naminé...

And it was now time for Roxas to repay his debt to her... by reopening the Door to Darkness, as she had asked, and by freeing her from Gil-Neithev.

With that thought, Roxas hopped off of his bed, summoned his two Keyblades, and walked out the door.

* * *

The sun rose over the Destiny Islands, showing that another day had arrived. The sounds of the common people of the city awakening could be heard, scuffling out of their beds and rushing to eat, get dressed, and do all the other things that everyone does in the morning. But this morning was a bit different.

This morning, the people of the island were up early to go to church.

Even before they had left their houses, the disturbing cries of "Praise be to Gil-Neithev!" could be heard throughout the whole city. A large bell rang from somewhere in the center of the island, calling the people to come to church. By this point, the followers of Gil-Neithev had so much power over the island that there were almost none who failed to attend--and, if someone did, they would likely be arrested on suspicions that they had abandoned the ways of Gil-Neithev.

All the people of the city, rich and poor alike, flooded the streets and headed to the gigantic church in the center of the city. The bell rang several more times, and voices from within the church began to chant words in a strange language that nobody remembered.

About half an hour later, the church was packed so full that dozens of people were forced to stand on the balcony above, or against the wall at the back of the room. Children fidgeted about in their seats, quickly becoming bored of church (as children are prone to do) and finding other ways to amuse themselves.

And then, everyone--even the kids--suddenly grew quiet when a tall, spikey-haired man in white robes walked up to the podium in the front of the church, looking out over the crowd.

The man scanned the room, looking everyone in the eyes and spending a bit more time than usual on several people. After a few minutes, he stepped back and whispered something to one of the three heavily-armored knights standing behind him. The knight nodded, pointing out into the crowd.

"You," the spikey-haired man said, stepping forward and pointing toward the same man that the knight had pointed out, "Come forward."

A silver-haired, middle-aged man, wearing simple clothes and a raincoat, stood up from his seat and then began walking toward the front of the church, stopping several feet away from the podium. The spikey-haired man in robes looked down at him, staring directly into his eyes, and then mumbled something to himself.

"Hmm... Otonashi, is it?", the robed man asked, "You do realize that you are the father of a wanted criminal, do you not?"

The silver-haired man stood there, just staring forward, not sure what was going on. Everyone knew he was Riku's father. It was obvious--their family was the only one on the island whose members, generation after generation, were born with silver hair. What was the point of this?

"And not only that," the priest continued, "This criminal just happens to be one of the most wicked, Darkness-saturated beings currently alive... Riku, the one who abandoned the Light..."

"Shut up!", the silver-haired man yelled, leaping up past the podium and grabbing the priest's robes, "Don't say anything else about my son, or..."

"Or what?", the priest asked, staring directly into Otonashi's eyes. He then began talking much more quietly, almost whispering. "You'll kill me? Oh, but I don't think Riku would like that very much... murdering his best friend's father right before his eyes... you're more like Riku than I thought."

That was the last straw. Riku's father grabbed Sora's father by the shoulders, jerking him up over the podium and sending the various books ontop of it flying everywhere. The two men slammed onto the floor, with the silver-haired one quickly pinning the other down and punching him in the face over and over. There were gasps from the crowd, and several thumps as a small group of old women near the back passed out and fell over.

"Kazuki," the silver-haired man said between punches, "I don't care if your son is the King, or how close he is to Riku... I _hate_ you."

Another punch. Blood flew everywhere, and Kazuki's nose was now very obviously broken. A tooth was knocked loose and sent skidding across the stones of the floor. Seeing the blood and the bruises begin to form, Otonashi stood up, aiming a kick at the spikey-haired man's face.

But then, just as suddenly as it had begun, the fight abruptly ended. Two small beams of light flew clear across the room from the front doors of the church, slicing through Otonashi's chest and surrounding him with a strange glow. The man's heart, glowing pink like any other, drifted out from his chest and fluttered in the air for several seconds before transforming into a white, glowing slug-like creature. The father of Riku choked, reaching out toward the door weakly for a second, before falling over dead.

The Queen herself, Kairi, had stepped in to end the battle. After Otonashi's body had fallen to the floor, she began to walk between the pews, stopping in front of the badly wounded Kazuki and reaching out her hand.

"My... my Queen," the man stuttered, slowly pulling himself up off the floor and reaching toward her hand. He touched it once, barely able to hold on for more than a second, and then suddenly he was surrounded by an aura of light.

"You are healed," Kairi said, her eyes glowing for a second as she released his hand, "Now, proceed with your service as usual. Do not worry about any other pawns of the Darkness that may lurk among us--they will be found out soon enough."

Kazuki stood, no longer wounded, and bowed to the Queen before turning around and returning to his podium. The three knights had gathered up the books that had been knocked off of the podium, placing them back where they had been before, and were now stepping back to their original positions.

"Now... where were we. Ah, yes, today's sermon," Sora's father said, "Today I'll be speaking of methods to identify servants of the Dark and see them for what they truly are..."

"And, as we all have seen before us today... the Darkness is always nearby, lurking in even the most unexpected of places."

As the sermon went on, nobody even noticed that the body that was once Riku's father, seemingly dead on the floor, had begun to fade away...

* * *

Vexen found himself awakened earlier than he would have liked--he had fallen asleep in his lab the night before, and the sound of his alarm clock had brought him out of his slumber.

Except it wasn't the alarm clock at all--it was still hours before the time he had set it to go off at. There had to be another alarm set up in the room, but when halfway-asleep, it was difficult for even Vexen to remember how many things in the lab could make loud, annoying sounds if the conditions were right.

He wandered throughout the lab, looking at each piece of equipment, and grabbed a half-eaten avocado from a plate nearby, munching on it quietly for several minutes as the alarm continued to ring. There was something in those avocados that always seemed to wake him up.

And then, suddenly, he noticed which alarm it was that was going off.

It was the machine set up to scan the Twilight World for unknown beings, now set to detect any newcomers to the world as they arrived and ring an alarm for anything unusual.

A small, yellow dot was blinking on and off somewhere near Twilight Town. An unknown Nobody had appeared on the map.


	32. Chapter 27: Otonashi

**Chapter 27**

It was a peaceful day in Twilight Town. Kids were running in the streets and playing around as usual, and though the sun wasn't exactly shining the same way it would on other worlds, the feeling of the stereotypical "bright, sunny day" where nothing bad could happen was definitely there.

Roxas, on the other hand, was feeling more than a little frustrated. He was supposed to unlock the Door to Darkness, to restore balance to the World of Light and help defeat Gil-Neithev, but there were a few obvious problems. First of all, he had no way to even get to another _country,_ let alone another _world._

Second of all, he had no idea how he would get to the Door to Darkness once he did manage to reach the World where it was located. Where _was_ it, anyway? Did anyone else even know how to get there, or would he have to wait for Naminé to visit him again so he could stop and ask for directions?

And third of all, the entire town's supply of sea-salt ice cream had run out, and the new shipment hadn't arrived yet.

* * *

On the other side of town, near the road leading out toward the beach, a crowd of kids had gathered around something. A few kids pushed into the crowd to see what was going on, and they were directed toward the ground, where an unfamiliar man was lying, apparently dead or at least unconscious, in the grass.

The last time someone had mysteriously appeared on the outskirts of town, it had been Roxas, five years ago. There was something different about this man, though--for one thing, he still had clothes on when he appeared, whereas Roxas was naked. Also, he was much older--most likely over 40, though nobody could tell for sure. And the third thing that made this mystery man so unusual was his hair color--an odd silvery-white that was rarely seen in Twilight Town.

"Hey, Fuu," one of the kids said, turning toward an older girl with similarly-colored hair in the crowd, "This guy one of your relatives or somethin'?"

"No," she said, looking over at the kid for a second and then going back to looking at the man on the ground along with everyone else.

As everyone watched, the man finally began to stir. First, his hand reached forward slightly, as if trying to grab something in front of him--except, of course, there was nothing there for him to grab but the grass. He reached further, and the crowd began to back away slightly. One of the kids in the crowd slipped, and the man grabbed his ankle suddenly, mumbling something under his breath at the same time. The kid yelled out--and the other kids began to run away as fast as they could.

However, the man seemed to realize that the leg he had grabbed wasn't the one he was after, and let go soon afterward. The kid scrambled to his feet and went running after the rest of the group, and by the time the silver-haired man had managed to pull himself away from the ground, none of the kids were in sight.

"Where in the world _am_ I?", the man said to himself, pulling himself off the ground. There was a slight pain in his chest, and two small slashes in his shirt--the only physical signs of being hit by that beam that had removed his heart. Other than that, he was unharmed.

Wait--how could he still be alive if his heart had been removed? He stumbled around confused--he had seen his heart leave his body, yet he could tell he was still alive even without it. How had he lived through _that_... and where was he now? How had he somehow ended up on another world...?

For that matter, how did he _know_ he was on another world?

Otonashi heard a strange sound behind him, and so he turned to see what it was. Swirling in the air in front of him was a portal of Darkness, a black-and-purple hole in existence that led who-knows-where. At first, he just stood and watched the dark energies swirling about, but no matter how hard he stared into the darkness, he couldn't tell what was on the other side of it.

He got his answer shortly afterward, when two people in long, black cloaks emerged from the portal. One was an older man--probably even a good bit older than himself--with long, dirty-blonde hair. He was carrying some kind of green fruit or vegetable or _something,_ which he would occasionally take a bite out of. The other was a teenage girl, probably not much older than sixteen based on her appearance, and had long green hair in a similar hairstyle to that of the old man.

"Who are you?", Otonashi asked, backing away from the two, "Who... what... what's going on?"

"I'm sure this day has been a confusing one for you," the old man said, taking the last bite from his avocado and tossing the pit aside, "You are one who has lost his heart and become a being of body and soul alone. You are not of the Darkness or of the Light, but walk in the Twilight path between. You... are a Nobody, an incomplete being."

"A... Nobody?", he asked, "You mean... I'm... I _don't exist_ now? My son mentioned Nobodies before, and--"

"First of all, disregard everything you may have heard about Nobodies," the old man said, taking a step toward Otonashi, "As much of what you have heard is likely to be nothing more than superstition and rumor."

"So... what are you saying?", Otonashi asked, "You're saying I should trust your word over my son's? He fought the Nobodies... and their leaders, that Organization... what was it called..."

"Organization XIII," the old man answered, "A group which I am quite familiar with... because I am Vexen, Number Four of the Organization. Number Four by the old order, that is... though I suppose that now, since I am the oldest surviving member, that I could call myself Number One."

"You... _you're_ Nobodies too," Otonashi said, backing away, "And Organization members... those black cloaks... I should've known..."

"And you _shouldn't_ be so afraid," Vexen said, "You're acting like a child. We have no reason to harm you--in fact, we came here to _help_ you. You see, Organization XIII is made up of intelligent Nobodies such as Michiko and I... and you, as well."

"We would like you to join our Organization. But first, you must tell me your name."

"My name... so that's all you want, then," Otonashi said, "Well then. As long as you're not expecting me to go around turning people into Heartless, I guess I could tell you."

"I can't imagine any reason why we would be interested in turning anyone into a Heartless," Vexen said, "That was only a piece of our old Superior's plans. But Xemnas is long dead--and Kingdom Hearts was destroyed along with him."

"What!?", Otonashi yelled out, "Kingdom Hearts... destroyed? But... how can that be? Kingdom Hearts is..."

"Yes, the Heart of All Worlds, the Source of All Light, and all that other garbage. I've heard it all before," Vexen said, beginning to sound slightly annoyed--and as if he had explained this to someone many, many times before.

"Kingdom Hearts was only an ancient device for storing hearts in their natural state after the deaths of the bodies that hold them... nothing less, nothing more," Vexen continued, "And we will explain this, and much more, to you... later. For now, could you please just tell us your name?"

"Otonashi," the silver-haired man said, "My name is Otonashi..."

The portal to the Dark Passage slowly began to close, and Vexen motioned for him to follow. The two in black cloaks passed through the portal and disappeared, and Otonashi slowly followed, still wondering what in the world was going on.

* * *

Maleficent looked up to her old castle as she walked, approaching the old door that was barely hanging onto its hinges. The place was in bad enough condition before, but now it was so deteriorated that it would probably be easier to just build a new castle.

Or, in Maleficent's case, get her minions to build her a new castle. After all, Prince John had plenty of experience smashing rocks--if she hadn't freed him, he'd still be standing there with an iron ball chained to his leg and a sledgehammer in his hand, breaking rocks and doing other various manual labor until the day he died. It wouldn't take long to bash down the old castle--and after that, the old stones would still be in good enough condition to be used in building another one.

As Maleficent walked through the half-decayed walls of her old castle, she suddenly got a better idea.

She was going to _move_ a new castle to her old homeworld, not _build_ one. And she knew just the right castle to move.


	33. Chapter 28: A New Member

**Chapter 28**

The Organization--or, at least, what was left of it--was gathered around a table in one of Castle Oblivion's meeting rooms. In fact, it was the same meeting room that Vexen, Lexaeus, and Zexion had used during the Castle Oblivion incident nearly eleven years before--all the way down to the lights that didn't quite work as well as those in the other rooms. But, there was still _something_ about that particular meeting room that the three liked, so they used it anyway whenever something important had to be discussed.

And a new member joining the Organization--the first new addition since Michiko's cloned body was completed and she joined--was definitely something important. At one end of the table sat Vexen, Lexaeus, and Zexion. Vexen was reading over some papers, while Zexion quietly watched Otonashi, noticing that the man looked familiar somehow. Michiko sat next to Lexaeus, and apparently the extra energy from the training session the day before had finally run out--she had fallen asleep right there, flopping over onto one of Lexaeus' arms and snoring loudly. Lexaeus just ignored the girl, instead watching Vexen as he read over his notes. And sitting alone, on the opposite end of the table, was the newcomer to the Organization, Otonashi.

"So, Otonashi," Vexen asked, looking up from his papers, "If my information is correct, you are a relative of the boy named Riku... correct?"

"Yes... Riku is--wait a second," he said, "What's going on? How did you know I was related to Riku?"

"I happened to have a small supply of Riku's DNA left over," the old scientist answered, "And I noticed that quite a bit of the DNA is exactly identical to your own. You must be within his immediate family... his father, possibly?"

"That's... well, I don't understand how you could have known so easily," Otonashi said, "But... that's right. I am Riku's father."

"Hmm," Lexaeus spoke up, "Vexen, before you continue... have you noticed anything odd about the DNA shared between Riku and his father?"

"Well, I haven't yet," Vexen said, shuffling through the papers once again, "Just a fluke, it seems, that they're so similar... a few recessive genes managed to show through, and..."

Vexen suddenly froze, making an odd face and flipping back through the papers again for several minutes. He stopped on one particular page, which seemed to be not much more than an endless list of letters and numbers--Otonashi's genes, mapped out in paper form.

"Le... Lexaeus... how did you..."

"Just a hunch I had. There's something strange going on with their DNA--they're just too similar for it to be a coincidence."

"Yes... very much so, it seems... as far as I can see, there are several recessive genes that actually seem to be overpowering their corresponding dominant genes... but in everyone else I've seen..."

Zexion suddenly spoke up. "So, it's like some of the genes are stronger than the others... so much that a recessive gene from one source could overpower a dominant one from another?"

"Two sources... I see what you're implying, Zexion," Vexen continued, "One source is a newer strain, a weaker one... and the other is from an ancient bloodline that has grown incredibly powerful over time."

"And one of this ancient bloodline's primary traits is silver hair," Lexaeus said, "Certainly not a common hair color in the World of Light..."

"...But in the World of Darkness... silver hair is easier to find than even _brown,_" Zexion said, looking over toward Otonashi once again. The silver-haired man looked more than a little nervous--and it was no surprise. After all, he _was_ Riku's father, and their family _did_ live in the World of Light--where the World of Darkness was generally thought to be nothing more than an empty place filled with Heartless by the thousands.

"You're saying... my ancestors came from..."

"Yes," Vexen said, "If our hypothesis is correct, someone in your family's history was descended from the ancient tribe that once lived in the World of Darkness."

"You mean... someone actually _lives_ there? But how? Riku said--"

"_Riku_ only saw a _very_ small portion of that world," Vexen interrupted, raising his voice slightly, "And what's more, Riku's first visit to the World of Darkness was long after the Heartless invaded and wiped out much of the world's population. You will soon discover, Otonashi, that your son was _far_ from perfect, and his knowledge of the worlds he has visited is no different."

Otonashi now looked almost frightened, though--like his son often did--he was obviously trying to hide it. For a second, it seemed like he was going to get up and try to run, but Lexaeus held up a hand and motioned for him to stay still.

"Don't let Vexen's outbursts bother you," Lexaeus said, "He is a scientist, after all--the ignorance that many of the World of Light's inhabitants have about other worlds would annoy anyone whose entire life is devoted to seeking knowledge."

The silver-haired man seemed to calm down slightly, but he still looked like he could freak out and run off in a second. Lexaeus was intimidating, mostly due to his size and deep voice, but the sight of Michiko flopped over on his arm--her mouth hanging open and loud snores occasionally coming out--made him seem a bit less intimidating than the mad scientist at the other end of the table was.

"So... um," Otonashi said, "How do I ask this... do I have to change my name or something now?"

Everyone who was awake looked at him funny for a second, before he continued.

"You do change the names of your new members, right? Rearranging the letters and adding an X, or something like that?"

"You are correct... that is what we _used_ to do," Vexen said, standing up from the table, "When Xemnas was our Superior, and the entire Organization did as he said. Now, Xemnas is dead, never to order us around again... and each and every one of his little traditions has died along with him."

"So... thanks to my son and his friend Sora, I don't have to change my name," Otonashi said, "Good."

* * *

Roxas walked along the empty streets of Twilight Town, trying to figure out how he was ever going to accomplish what Naminé had asked him to do. The Door to Darkness connected the worlds of Light and Darkness... but he wasn't currently in either of those worlds. About the only kind of long-distance transportation he knew of was the train, and it was pretty obvious that you couldn't go to another world by train.

Just then, he noticed someone running down the street toward him. He was about to draw his Keyblades, but then he quickly noticed who the person was--it was a boy about his age, slightly overweight and wearing a shirt with a picture of a skeletal dog on it.

"Pence!?", Roxas asked, shouting toward the boy as he ran down the street in a panic, "Where are you going? What's happening?"

"You've got to get outta here!", Pence said, stopping in front of Roxas for a second before running again, "Those glowing bugs... they've gone crazy! There's hundreds of them!"

Roxas gasped. He had never seen more than a few of them in one place before--what was happening now? Pence ran past him, disappearing behind the corner of a building, but Roxas just stood still in the street, wondering what was going on.

"Those things... the Shin'an, or whatever they were called," Roxas mumbled to himself, "There's never that many of them... unless..."

"Naminé... Gil-Neithev must have found out that she was talking to me... so this is all my fault..."

Roxas looked down at the ground for a second, kicking a small rock out of the way.

"But I can't just give in and let things happen..."

Suddenly, Roxas seemed to change--he looked back up from the ground, gazing out across the empty street where Pence had come running toward him from. He grinned--and for just a second, there was a very Axel-like look on his face.

"If this is all my fault," he said, "Then I'll just have to fix it."

He then began running down the street, heading toward whatever horrors waited around the next corner at full speed, his feet barely touching the ground as he went.

* * *

"Do you honestly think that Sofia can defeat him alone?", the shortest of the three knights asked, "Something tells me she's gonna get whomped if that kid catches up to her. I could have gone with her, but--"

"It doesn't matter," the taller knight said, silencing the other immediately. The two were staring into a sphere of light that was floating in front of them, looking through it and watching Twilight Town's streets. The taller knight watched for several minutes, then spoke again.

"Even if the King's Nobody is capable of killing her in battle, she will only return. Have you forgotten the gift Gil-Neithev has given us?"

"Ah, yes... It's been so long since I was killed in battle that I _had_ almost forgotten."

"And none of them has yet discovered our secret," the tallest knight said, "Which is why she must clash with Roxas alone. If she succeeds, our job will be that much easier... and if she fails, she can always try again next time. Roxas will be worn down more and more with each battle..."

"Yeah," the shorter knight said, taking his helmet off, "Before long the poor kid won't know which way is up--and that's when she'll get the killing blow in. Nothing better than watching an empty shell of a being fade away into nonexistence..."

The two knights laughed to themselves a bit, apparently amused by the thought of killing Nobodies. They continued to watch Twilight Town through their globe of light, seeing Roxas rushing through the streets searching for any sign of the Shin'an swarm they had sent there. He had noticed the glowing footprints on the ground, but the swarm had receded every time he came closer, drawing him further away from the central parts of the city.

"It won't be long," the tall knight said, "Within a few minutes, Roxas will reach the spot that Sofia has chosen for their first encounter... the point within Twilight Town where the force of Twilight that powers Nobodies is at its weakest."

"It's almost like cheating," the shorter knight said, "But that's no problem as long as nobody knows it happened, right?"

"Indeed," the taller knight said, "We are the chosen ones of Gil-Neithev... the laws of those below us simply do not apply now."


	34. Chapter 29: Sofia

**Chapter 29**

Mickey paced back and forth between two small beds, occasionally looking over into them and checking the condition of the two people inside. Donald and Goofy had apparently "un-frozen" when the glowing creature had been destroyed, but as soon as that happened, they both immediately fell unconscious--and neither had recovered yet.

"What's going on with them?", Riku asked, walking into the room and coming over toward the mouse King. Unlike Mickey, Riku had managed to get some sleep after the encounter with the Shin'an--but it was hard to sleep knowing that there might still be more of them around.

"I'm not sure," Mickey said, checking Goofy's pulse once again, "They're alive, and they don't seem to be hurt at all, but... they've been like this ever since they unfroze."

"They're not hurt, but they won't wake up... well, that's really weird."

"It sure is... I've never seen anything like this," Mickey said, checking up on Donald's condition. For a few seconds, he just stood there and stared at Donald and Goofy, hoping that they would awaken, but nothing happened. The two still were asleep, even though there was no apparent reason for it.

"We'd better be careful from now on," Riku said, "There's no way to tell when another one of those things gets in here... we'll have to be on watch for them all the time."

"Yeah... that's what worries me," Mickey said, "We've never really had a real crisis here... even back when Maleficent managed to get some Heartless in here, nobody actually got hurt... but this time it's different."

* * *

Roxas continued to run along the streets of Twilight Town, following the glowing footprints of the Shin'an. They seemed to be slowing down--he occasionally caught a glimpse of one disappearing off in the distance, when before all he could ever see was footprints.

He turned around a corner, and suddenly saw that the creatures had stopped at the end of the street. They slowly skittered away into alleys and through the windows of buildings, leaving the street illuminated by their footprints as they went. Roxas headed halfway down the street, trying to see where the creatures had gone. He was about to go chasing after them again when suddenly he heard the sound of metal clashing against stone behind him.

He spun around to see what had made the noise. Standing at the corner of the street he had just passed was a figure coated from head to toe in armor--no part of the person underneath was visible, not even her face, though she was obviously female based on the shape of her armor.

And she was armed with a Keyblade.

"What the..."

The armored figure took a few steps toward Roxas, then stopped and apparently yawned. Roxas started to walk toward her, but before he could get anywhere near her, she suddenly jumped backwards and held up her Keyblade in a battle stance.

"Who _are_ you?"

"My name is Sofia, one of the Warriors of Light under Gil-Neithev."

She took a few steps toward him again, and looked him over. She seemed to stare at his necklace, that X-shaped one that resembled the top part of a Nobody symbol, longer than anything else, and then she spoke again.

"So you're the Nobody," she said, "Hmph... an empty shell walking down the streets of an empty city. How appropriate."

"What are you talking about?", Roxas said, "This place isn't... _empty,_ or anything like that! There's people all over the place!"

"Not for long," she said, pointing into the windows of a nearby house. Inside, there was a scream and a short flash of light, and then two of the glowing, cricket-like Shin'an crawled out of the window and moved on to the next house.

"You see, this world is a disgrace to Gil-Neithev," she continued, "Light tainted by Darkness, blended together with it... this force of Twilight is an abomination, and it must be dealt with before--"

"Shut up!", Roxas yelled, raising a fist toward the knight, "I won't let you destroy my home! Get your stupid bugs and leave... before I _make_ you leave."

"_You,_ make _me_ leave?", she said, "Don't be silly. You are _nothing,_ Roxas... only the leftovers of Sora's transformation into a being of Light. You're a Nobody... you _don't exist._"

Sofia held up her Keyblade, aiming it toward a building, and the end of it began to glow brightly. There was a bright flash, and then a beam of light burst forth from the weapon, slamming into a house on the street behind Roxas and causing it to collapse to the ground. As the dust from the destroyed building cleared, she laughed a little, and then continued.

"And speaking of not existing... as soon as I'm done with you, I'll make it so this whole pathetic town will be just like you. _Nonexistent._"

She began to slowly walk toward Roxas when suddenly he reached up toward his two Keyblades, tearing them out of their straps and causing flames to erupt from one of them and a warm glow to shine from the other. The flames and light continued to swirl around the two blades for several seconds before finally disappearing, and Roxas raised his head up again, staring at the female knight with a kind of anger that he hadn't shown in a _very_ long time.

"Oh, what's this?", the knight said, looking at Roxas' two weapons, "The little boy who never was has new Keyblades... what a surprise."

She suddenly rushed up toward Roxas and grabbed the weapons from his hands, then teleported back to her original position. Roxas just stood there staring at her in shock, while she examined the Keyblades thoroughly.

"Ah... Axel and Naminé," she said, "So the little nothing-boy says he misses his old friends. Hmph... as if a Nobody can really feel anything in the first place... and for other Nobodies, no less!"

"You..."

Roxas growled, clenching his fists as if grabbing onto something. The two Keyblades quickly disappeared from the knight's hands, reappearing in Roxas' with the same flashes of flames and light that surrounded them when they were first drawn.

"Axel and Naminé... they were..."

"They were what, little nothing? Don't be ridiculous. You are a _Nobody._ You do not _have_ emotions... you're only fooling yourself if you believe that you ever felt anything for--"

"My Light and my Darkness, the two of them... they were the two people that kept my life going, just as Light and Darkness both keep me strong..."

"Silly little boy, you--"

"They would give anything to keep me safe... even their lives..."

"You... how dare you interrupt me! You're--"

"I'll protect this place with my life... as they did for me!"

Roxas rushed down the street toward her, his two Keyblades trailing behind him and scraping along the ground, leaving huge gashes in the bricks as they went. As he approached the knight, he jumped into the air, swinging his two Keyblades down toward her. Her Keyblade rose to block the two, but it wasn't enough, and she was sent flying backwards.

She quickly recovered from the blow, leaping high into the air above Roxas and dodging his next attack. After flipping around in midair several times, she landed once again, this time behind Roxas. He turned around just in time to block a Keyblade swing, and countered with a few of his own. The two traded blows for several minutes before an especially powerful Keyblade swing from Sofia sent Roxas to the ground.

Sofia stopped, looking as if she was about to say something, but this was cut short when Roxas sprang up again, slamming her in the side of the head with the black Keyblade that symbolized Axel. She staggered for a second, then raised her free hand and fired a beam of Light at Roxas, knocking him into the wall of a building.

"Hmph," she said, walking over toward him with her Keyblade raised, "I had hoped this would take a bit longer... especially considering who your 'other half' is. You've disappointed me, Roxas."

Roxas didn't move, and appeared to be unconscious. The female knight walked closer, then raised her Keyblade high into the air, preparing to impale the boy on it. Before she had a chance, the building that Roxas was lying up against suddenly collapsed and fell toward her, nearly slamming down ontop of her.

Before she could say anything else, Roxas burst up through the wreckage of the building, throwing one Keyblade at her like a boomerang. She just barely dodged, but was slammed in the back with his other Keyblade when Roxas got close, knocking her forward once again. Roxas caught the flying Keyblade as it returned, then began pummeling Sofia with an uncountable number of Keyblade strikes. She tried to block them, but the hits were coming in too quickly and too strong for one Keyblade to possibly stop them.

Before long, she had fallen onto the ground, her Keyblade slipping out of her hand. Roxas looked down toward her, not sure what to expect--after all, _he_ had pretended to be dead to trick _her_ not long before. Several minutes passed, and Roxas was about to put his Keyblades away and walk home.

And then, he heard her laughing behind him once again. She was back up on her feet again, apparently only slightly injured, and had her Keyblade pointed at his back, with an aura of Light surging up around it just like what had happened before she had destroyed a house earlier. He turned around, but he was just a second too late--the beam blasted out from Sofia's Keyblade once again, speeding toward him.

He raised up both of his Keyblades in defense, but the blast knocked the two weapons loose from his hands and sent him flying into--and _through_--another building.

Roxas struggled to stand up, brushing some chunks of wood and glass out of his hair, and then clenched his fists again, returning his lost Keyblades back to his hands before the knight could grab them again. He came running out from the smashed building, but she was ready this time, firing another blast of Light at him as he emerged from the hole in the wall. He rolled out of the way, and rather than hitting him, the beam slammed into the house, causing it to collapse just like the first one.

He jumped up again, swinging his Keyblades wildly at the knight, but she somehow managed to block or dodge every attack. This went on for several minutes, and Roxas was beginning to tire. Half of his hair was matted down with sweat, only halfway sticking up, and the various cuts and bruises were becoming more and more visible.

Sofia rushed in at this moment, slashing at Roxas with the sharp end of her Keyblade. Roxas screamed as the Keyblade cut into his side, chopping a good chunk out of his shirt and leaving a long, bleeding gash across his body underneath. She watched the boy struggle to stand, blood dripping on the ground, and once again she began to laugh at him.

"What... what's so funny?", Roxas asked, "That's nothing... you've gotta do more than just... cut me once... if you want to get rid of me."

"Hmm... Surprising that an empty shell has such a strong will to live," she said, raising her Keyblade up and once again charging Light in its tip.

"What, did you forget already?", Roxas said, "That's what makes people like me different from other Nobodies... We didn't just give in... we didn't just _let_ our bodies warp, or our minds fade away into insanity..."

He stood up all the way, clutching his side and holding up the white Keyblade symbolizing Naminé. A bright glow surrounded his other hand, and when he removed it from his wound, the bleeding had stopped.

"A smart-ass like you should've known... that someone like me wouldn't go down so easily."

With that, Roxas flew at her again, slamming the two Keyblades into her over and over as if he was never injured to begin with. With every strike, flames began to flicker around the black Keyblade, and the metallic-looking parts of the weapon began to glow red, as if they were about to melt. The other Keyblade began to glow brightly, and ghostly shapes swirled up around it.

She got up and started to say something, but before she could get out a single word, she was silenced by a powerful Keyblade swing that sent her helmet flying off of her head and smashing against the ground, bouncing down the street like a tin can and revealing the face of the person inside the armor. She had long, neon-green hair in a ponytail, which was now coated in sweat much like Roxas' hair was.

Sofia stood up once again, and began to reach for her helmet, but before she could get anywhere near it, Roxas was on the attack. The black Keyblade was now surrounded by flames, slamming into the knight so hard and producing so much heat that parts of her armor became warped and twisted as she was hit. Several more strikes hit, and before long she had dropped her Keyblade. Roxas kept going, sending her flying backward into a building and smashing the door off of its hinges. She wasn't even able to stand up again before Roxas had caught up to her, sending her flying up through the roof of the building with a swing from both Keyblades at once.

Roxas walked back out of the building several minutes later, and stood there in front of the damaged house, looking up into the sky. There was a scream from up above him, and the knight finally came falling back toward the ground, slamming into the street and sending bricks flying everywhere. Roxas walked over to her, and raised the two Keyblades up over his head like an executioner would raise his axe.

"It's over," Roxas said, "But before I finish you off, tell me one thing."

"Hmph... what do you want to know so badly?", Sofia said, not sounding distressed at all. Roxas looked at her for a second, before finally answering.

"The World of Light. That's where you're from, right?", Roxas asked.

"Of course."

"How do I get there from here?"

Sofia just laughed at him, and began to stand up again, reaching for her helmet and Keyblade that were both lying on the ground nearby.

"And what, exactly, makes you think I would tell a little nothing-boy like _you_ how to--"

She didn't get a chance to finish her sentence.

Roxas took his two Keyblades and returned them to their places in the straps across his back, then began to walk back home. As he slowly headed back toward his home, Sofia was surrounded by a bright light, starting with her Keyblade and armor and then moving on to the body itself. There was a sudden flash, and then she was gone.


	35. Chapter 30: Catching Up

**Chapter 30**

"She's a little slow getting back to us today, huh?", the shorter knight asked, still staring into the globe of light in the center of the room. The only thing the orb showed was the empty street of Twilight Town where she had been killed, torn-up bricks and all. The blood--both Roxas' and Sofia's--was beginning to dry, and the dust thrown up by the collapsing houses was finally starting to settle again.

"This is her first death in hundreds of years," the taller knight said, turning away from the orb for a second, "You remember how long it took the three of us to rise again the first time, don't you?"

"Yeah," the shorter one said, "Ten years after Gil-Neithev awakened, and another ten years on top of that before the Light grew strong enough."

"Fortunately, Sofia will be back with us before _that_ much time has passed," the taller knight said, looking back into the glowing orb, "Probably no more than two days, at the most. Three if she's feeling particularly sluggish."

"Heh, don't you mean 'depending on how badly that kid whomped her?'", the shorter knight said, "Should've known she wouldn't have much of a chance against that kid... he is Sora's Nobody, after all."

"True," the taller one said, "Sora has always managed to defeat enemies far more powerful than himself, even when all odds were completely against him... it's no surprise that his Nobody would inherit that ability as well."

Several minutes passed, with neither of the two saying anything--only staring into the light at the center of the room and watching Twilight Town, just as they had done for hours before, and just as they would continue to do for hours to come.

* * *

Otonashi removed his old yellow raincoat, letting it flop to the floor, and walked into the enormous closet in front of him. The room was completely white, just like every other room he had entered in Castle Oblivion, but that was offset by the contents of the closet--dozens, if not _hundreds,_ of long, black, hooded cloaks in all different shapes and sizes.

There were a number of cloaks that fit the body shapes and sizes of the Organization members he had met, as well as several more that seemed made for those that Riku had described to him but he had never seen in person--there were a set of very long but extremely small cloaks, apparently made for someone very thin. He pushed past those, noticing a few stray red hairs fluttering to the floor as he shoved the cloaks out of the way, and moved back further in the closet.

"Hmm... well, I guess this one looks about right," he said, pulling a cloak off of one of the coathangers that they all were attached to. There were a few strands of long, blue hair stuck inside the cloak's hood--apparently, whoever washed them had been lazy that day.

He tried on the cloak, noticing that it fit almost perfectly. It was a bit loose, and the sleeves seemed a bit longer than they needed to be, but neither of those things was really much of a problem. He picked some of the blue hairs out of the hood before putting it on, wondering which Organization member the cloak had once belonged to. It was obviously much too large for Zexion... but wasn't there someone else with blue hair in the Organization once?

Otonashi couldn't remember. It had been years since Riku had told him stories about his adventures, and even then, few of the Organization members were given much more than a passing mention.

Several minutes later, Otonashi walked back into the hallway, now in full Organization XIII uniform--the black cloak, the pants, the boots, and even the gloves. The others were waiting out in the hall, standing around and talking amongst themselves about various random things.

Well, actually, it was Michiko who was doing most of the talking, now that she was awake--Lexaeus was just standing there silently, Vexen was munching on an avocado sandwich, and Zexion was occasionally nodding in agreement to whatever Michiko was saying. It was pretty obvious that, like the other two, he wasn't really paying attention to a word she said.

"I'm finished with the clothes," Otonashi said, pulling the hood over his head to see how it fit, "What's next?"

Zexion was the first to notice that Otonashi was finished changing, jumping up a little at the sight of him before quickly returning to his usual calm state--apparently, he had mistaken Otonashi for Saix at first. It wouldn't have been a hard mistake to make, especially since Riku's father was about the same height as Saix--and, like Saix, was slightly more muscular than the average Organization member. He had even chosen one of Saix's old cloaks as his own--there were still a few blue hairs here and there, mostly on the hood.

"Now," Lexaeus said, stepping away from the wall, "It is time to find out what powers you have gained as a Nobody."

* * *

Sephiroth pushed aside a cluster of small trees, snapping them in half as he passed. Traveling through the jungle was slow and frustrating, but it was a world that he had not yet searched--Cloud could be there.

That, and rough terrain like the jungle was much more likely to throw those three annoying teenagers off of his path.

Unfortunately, that hadn't quite happened yet--the three were, somehow, still just a few feet behind him, carrying their silly toy weapons around as if they were the real thing and making sure that their instruments were still strapped on. Occasionally one of them would jump up and shriek at the sight of a centipede or some other large insect, but generally they were moving fast enough to keep up.

"Hey," one of them said, "Why are we looking for this Cloud guy anyway, again? I forgot."

Sephiroth stopped, turning around and holding his sword up toward the three. He wasn't sure which one had spoken up--he hadn't bothered to memorize which voice went to which person yet, as he had hoped they wouldn't keep following him for so long.

"Cloud," Sephiroth growled, "Cloud... was the one responsible for Mother's death. But if he turns to the Darkness..."

The three silver-haired teenagers just stood there staring at him for several minutes, apparently confused. Before Sephiroth turned around and began walking again, another of the three spoke up.

"Then what?", Loz said, "What's gonna happen if Cloud goes to the dark side?"

"Not only Cloud," Sephiroth said, staring up at the sky as he spoke, "If the forces of Light are destroyed, and the Darkness begins to grow within what remains, Mother can begin to regain her power... and then, her _life._ She will be reborn, once again ruling over all that is Darkness..."

He walked up to the three, and then continued walking until he had passed them. An aura of Darkness surrounded him for several seconds, then quickly fizzled away.

"Once, when the Darkness was strong, Mother was almost ready... and I, too, grew in power..."

"But now, the Darkness is weak... I have lost much of my former strength. And Mother is angry... angry at Cloud, angry at the boy with the Keyblade... angry at the Light itself."

* * *

"Hmm... Naminé," the silver-haired man said, reading the signature on the paper that had mysteriously appeared in his home, "So that's her name."

He stood up from his seat, carrying the letter along with him. Outside, the brightest of several moons was in the sky, illuminating the landscape of the World of Darkness and providing enough light for someone to read by. It wasn't necessary for the man who lived in the abandoned mansion, of course, but it would be helpful for anyone else.

As he walked throughout the mansion, reading the mysterious letter and remembering the mysterious girl who had appeared in his dreams over the past five years, a cluster of various Heartless began to follow him around like puppies and kittens, begging for food and occasionally nipping at his legs playfully. He stopped in front of an old couch, sitting down and moving several boxes out of the way so that the Heartless could all pile onto the couch along with him.

"And now, Gil-Neithev has returned... I should have known," he said, petting a Shadow Heartless with one hand while holding the letter with the other, "It seems I've missed more than a few things in these years."

He stood up, causing the small Heartless on his lap to jump off suddenly and scurry off.

"Rather nice of Naminé to catch me up on things... and all without Gil-Neithev or anyone else knowing that I'm still around."

He raised one hand toward the celing, causing Darkness to surge around it for several seconds, and then snapped his fingers. Darkness surrounded him, with purple electricity occasionally sparking up and then quickly fading away. When everything cleared, he was no longer wearing his tuxedo. Instead, he was clothed in a strange outfit that he had not worn in years, with odd straps and zippers in places where they couldn't have possibly been functional and more than half of his chest exposed.

"I'll have to meet her someday."


	36. Chapter 31: A Mysterious Figure

**Chapter 31**

Lexaeus opened the door leading into the empty room and held it open, watching as Vexen, Zexion, and Michiko walked in. Finally, after everyone else had entered, Otonashi slowly walked in after them. Once everyone else was inside, Lexaeus followed, letting the door slam shut as he went.

"So, you're saying that somehow, just because I'm a Nobody, I have some sort of weapon and special powers now?", Otonashi asked. He knew that each member of the Organization seemed to have those things, going by what Riku had told him, but he still didn't understand why.

"Yes," Lexaeus answered, summoning his tomahawk, "Those who keep their form and intelligence as Nobodies become able to summon a special weapon. Usually, a Nobody's weapon takes the form of something familiar to them..."

The huge man held up his weapon, pointing to it. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out another object, apparently some sort of tool which resembled an axe.

"For example, my own weapon," he said, "Took the form of an axe... much like this one, but larger and more powerful."

Otonashi held out his hand and tried to concentrate the way Lexaeus had, but nothing happened. He stood there, looking as if he was clenching his fist and trying to grab something, for several minutes, but no weapon ever came.

"The first time is always the most difficult," Vexen said, summoning his own weapon, a large shield with spikes on the edges, "Especially if you attempt it outside of combat, in a situation with no stress of any kind. Summoning weapons, for a Nobody, is closely tied to one's instincts."

"So... if I want to find out what my weapon is, I've got to feel like I'm in danger..."

"Precisely."

Vexen snapped his fingers and suddenly a small group of Dusks appeared in the room, standing around Otonashi in a circle and wiggling disturbingly. Everyone else backed away into the corners of the room, standing and watching as the Dusks started to close in on the silver-haired man. Lexaeus and Vexen dematerialized their weapons and crossed their arms.

And then, one of the Dusks made a move. It hopped toward Otonashi, striking at him with one of its strange, skinny arms. He was knocked down, but not really injured, and stood back up just in time for two other Dusks to jump and kick him in the chest, sending him to the floor again.

"Do you think he'll be okay?", Michiko asked, turning toward Zexion, "It doesn't look like he's even trying to fight them..."

"He'll be fine," Zexion said, "Just watch. Before long the adrenaline will kick in, and with that comes the instinct to fight back..."

"And if it turns out he _still_ can't summon his weapon," Vexen said, "One of us can always command the Dusks to stop. There's no real danger in this situation at all--but he doesn't know that."

"Yes," Lexaeus said, "Even the illusion of danger should be enough."

For several minutes, Otonashi was knocked around by the Dusks, occasionally making an effort to duck out of the way or block one of their attacks. One of the Dusks slipped behind him and rammed into his back, sending him into an attack from the other Dusks. He fell to the floor, clutching his stomach in pain, and then slowly stood up again.

"What _are_ these things!?", he yelled toward the edges of the room, where everyone else was standing. There was no response--the other Nobodies only watched as the Dusks wiggled and prepared to attack him again.

Just as one of the creatures was about to step forward to attack, he lashed out, punching the thing in the face and causing it to wobble backwards slightly. He threw another punch, but the Dusk hopped out of the way, causing him to miss completely.

And then, something _different_ happened. There was a flash, and Otonashi felt something beginning to form in his hand--a handle of some sort. Before he knew exactly what was going on, he pulled his hand back from another punch...

...and heard a swishing sound behind him, followed by the sound of three of the Dusks falling to the floor. He looked down at his hand, and noticed that he was now holding onto some sort of whip-like weapon, with a short handle on one end and a hook-like blade on the other. As he had pulled his arm back to get ready to punch again, the whip had swung around in his hand and slashed three of the Dusks behind him, leaving only two standing.

"He did it!", Michiko shouted, looking like she was about to hop up and down out of excitement. Zexion covered his ears--well, actually, only one of his ears, since the other was already covered well enough by his hair.

Only a few more seconds passed before Otonashi had finished off the remaining Dusks, swinging the hooked whip around in a circle and catching the two Nobodies on the weapon's blade as they tried to escape. There were several silvery-white flashes, and then the Dusks were gone.

"Hmm," Otonashi said, looking at his new weapon carefully, "With that hook on the end, it almost looks like some kind of messed-up fishing pole."

He dematerialized the weapon after looking over it, with the whip-like part spinning and wrapping itself around the handle before finally glowing brightly and vanishing along with the rest.

"Appropriate, I guess, since I _was_ a fisherman... but I never thought I'd end up using a fishing pole as a _weapon_."

* * *

Roxas headed back down the streets of Twilight Town, walking quickly toward his home. Though there had been hundreds of the Shin'an infesting the place before, Sofia's death seemed to have driven them away--he didn't see a single one during his trip back home, and the footprints that had been there before were beginning to fade away. 

Before long, he had arrived at his house, and checked the entire place for any sign of the glowing creatures before he entered. Fortunately, it seemed that nothing strange was going on there--there was not a single footprint that would give away the presence of a Shin'an, and everything inside was in the same place as it was before...

But, as the door closed behind him, he suddenly felt like he was being watched.

"Who's there?", Roxas asked, pulling his Keyblades free from their straps and nearly slamming them into the walls behind him. He looked around, but no matter where he looked, it seemed that he was alone in the house--there was no sign that anyone else was there.

As he walked further away from the door, his feeling of being watched intensified to the point where it seemed like whoever was watching him was in the room. He looked around the room again, still seeing nothing but his empty house, and finally turned back toward the door.

The air in front of the door rippled for a second, and then was filled with a crackling sound and a swirl of strange, translucent shapes. From this came a single large circle of rippling air, which first shifted shape to a triangle before becoming a square, a pentagon, and finally a hexagon, each larger than the previous shape. The hexagon suddenly flashed and began spinning toward the floor, and a silvery-blue figure in the shape of a tall man stood up from within it.

"What... who are _you?_", Roxas said, holding out his two Keyblades in front of him and preparing for an attack. The figure stood in place for several minutes, then simply shrugged at him before speaking.

"I am one who no longer has a name," it said, "One who has lost everything only to lose everything again, and who has gained that which he had never wanted."

"What the heck is _that_ supposed to mean?", Roxas said, "That doesn't tell me anything!"

"Then I will tell you one thing," the figure said, "Things have changed in the last ten years. Things that require us to change in order to survive. Some of us change by turning away from our past and taking a new route... others must return to their past."

"You're _still_ not making any sense," Roxas said, "You haven't said a single thing I don't already know! _Of course_ things have changed--if nothing had changed, I wouldn't have this scar on my side, and I wouldn't be fighting these glowing bugs all the time!"

"There is no reason to be angry," the figure said, "In fact, you should be happy, Roxas... it is time for you to return to a place familiar to you, and to reunite with a few old friends."

"What are you talking about?", Roxas said, lowering his Keyblades for the first time, "All of my old friends either live here in Twilight Town... or..."

"Or they're dead..."

The figure nodded, but then held out one hand. A circle appeared in midair, rotating slowly and transforming into other increasingly-complex shapes until finally it became a hexagon. The shape flashed, and then suddenly an image of a road surrounded by grasslands on all sides appeared. At the end of the road was a tower reaching high into the sky, and several dark shapes could be seen moving about through the windows on one floor.

"That's... that's Castle Oblivion," Roxas said, nearly dropping his Keyblades from shock, "And someone's in there... but... I thought..."

"You were correct--each member of Organization XIII who once lived in that castle has passed away in one way or another," the figure said, gesturing with its hands toward the image inside the hexagon, "But a certain resourceful member of the Organization had a backup plan, it seems... cloning. Three of their original members now live again."

"But there's more than three people in there," Roxas said, pointing toward the image with one Keyblade, "See? Inside that room--there's a girl with green hair, and a silver-haired guy with some kind of whip. What's going on?"

"That, I am unsure of," the figure said, "It seems that the ressurrected Organization is seeking new members among those Nobodies that have kept their form. And you..."

"Finally you say something that makes sense," Roxas said, smiling and putting his Keyblades back into their straps, "You're asking me to go and join the 'new' Organization XIII."

Roxas took a few steps toward the door, standing directly in front of the strange entity that had appeared in his house. He waited there for a few seconds, and then the figure shifted slightly to the right to let him pass.

"Heck, if I had known those guys were still around... I would've joined them a long time ago," he said, opening the door and turning to face the mysterious figure one last time, "If that's all you want from me..."

"If only it were," the figure said, holding its hand out once again and causing the image of Castle Oblivion to disappear, "What I want most from you is... for you to accept my apology."

"Apology?", Roxas said, "What for?"

The figure stood still for what seemed like forever, flickering slightly and almost seeming confused--quite a difference from the rest of the conversation. Eventually, it shrugged once again, before answering.

"Hmm... I see. In that case," the figure said, crossing its arms, "Perhaps it is better if you never know."

With that, the figure began to ripple and fade away, leaving behind a swarm of geometric shapes which slowly disappeared in small flashes of silvery light. Whoever or whatever had visited Roxas had left.

And Roxas let the door swing shut behind him, heading toward the outskirts of Twilight Town to begin his next journey.


	37. Chapter 32: Overreacting

**Chapter 32**

"I think we've figured out what's wrong with them," Mickey said, walking back into the room where Donald and Goofy were still lying unconscious on two beds. Riku was sitting on a small chair nearby, watching the two and monitoring their condition.

"You did?", Riku said, "That's good news... so, what's going on?"

"Well, I'm not _exactly_ sure," Mickey said, hopping up onto the edge of one of the two beds, "But it seems like they're under the effects of some kind of curse. It doesn't seem like it's really strong or anything, but... none of our magic seems to work on it."

"Hmm... wait a second," Riku said, glancing at the unconscious two on the beds, "That glowing thing froze them, and they ended up like this when we killed it... I think I know why none of your magic is curing them."

Riku stood up, pointing to the symbol on the front of his shirt. Mickey looked confused for a second, and then he suddenly gasped.

"No wonder it wasn't working!", he shouted, "Our magic couldn't remove the curse because we've always used it to remove curses based on Darkness... and that thing definitely wasn't very 'dark' at all!"

"That's right," Riku said, sitting back down, "If we want to heal them, we'll have to figure out some way to do it using Darkness..."

Just at that moment, Mickey turned around and noticed Minnie standing in the doorway, her mouth gaping open. Judging by the shocked look on her face, she had been listening in for just long enough to hear Riku mention that they would need to use Darkness, but not long enough to know why.

"Y... you... Mickey... you're..."

"What? No! Wait, Minnie, I didn't mean--"

The door slammed, and the sounds of tiny mouse feet running down the hallways in a panic could be heard from outside, screaming things like _"The Darkness is invading!"_ and _"Riku... Riku's heart went back to the Darkness!"_ She yelled something about the King as well, but by then she was too far away for Riku or Mickey to hear.

"This isn't good," Riku said, grabbing the door and trying to get it to open. Apparently, Minnie slamming the door had done more than make a lot of noise, as the door was now stuck, and no amount of jerking on the doorknob could open it.

"You can say that again," Mickey said, slumping into one of the chairs. Riku looked over to the King, noticing that in an instant he had changed, almost seeming to be a completely different person. For the first time, Mickey wasn't his usual cheery self.

"Don't worry about her," Riku said, "Once we get this door open, we'll go explain everything. She'll understand."

"It's not Minnie I'm worried about," the mouse King said, "She trusts me more than anyone here... I'll be able to work things out with her. What I'm really worried about..."

The King hopped out of his chair, slightly slower and less happily than usual, and walked over toward the door, putting one of his large ears against it. Outside, he could already hear screams and the sounds of panicked mobs running about.

"What I'm _really_ worried about... is what everyone else will think. You and I know that Darkness isn't all bad... but all they've seen of Darkness is the Heartless. They don't know any better..."

* * *

In the middle of a peaceful forest on another world, a flying Shin'an buzzed above the tops of the trees on four wings, occasionally swooping down for a view of the land below. The thing flew along for several minutes before finally it spotted its target--a small clearing with a cottage in the center.

It wasn't anything that would stand out to a human--or a Heartless, for that matter. To a Heartless, the inhabitants of the simple cottage would be nothing more than a quick snack to munch on before moving on to the city several miles off. To a Shin'an, however, it was much more.

The Shin'an, unlike the mindless, wandering Heartless, was being pushed onward by a force that its simple, nearly insect-like mind could never even begin to imagine. While the Heartless simply destroyed and followed basic orders, and the Nobodies lashed out from fear and insanity, the Shin'an were not so much creatures in their own right as they were tools of a higher being.

The thing swooped down again, circling around the cottage several times, and then finally plunged downward into the chimney. There were several shouts from inside the cottage, but they were cut short as the Shin'an moved on from its main target and killed each other creature in the building as well.

It flew back up through the chimney, followed by one large glowing heart and seven small ones, which quickly transformed into four-winged, flying Shin'an similar to the thing that had killed their bodies. Then there was an incredible flash of light, and the largest of the hearts was gone, replaced with another new Shin'an.

* * *

"Another of the Princesses has been transformed," the taller knight said, gazing into the orb of light in the center of the room, "It will not be long, then. After the leaders of worlds join Gil-Neithev, so too will the worlds themselves... the Light is growing brighter with each day."

"Yes," the shorter knight said, "But you've got to remember, we still aren't finished with the first step."

At that moment, Kairi walked into the room. Her eyes were already glowing, though occasionally they would flicker slightly and begin to fade only to flare up again. Whatever had happened, she was _very_ angry.

"My Queen," the taller knight said, standing up and bowing to her. The shorter knight followed a few seconds afterward, almost knocking his chair over as he stood.

"I have come to announce another small change of plans," she said, her voice crackling between her normal one and the much deeper voice that occasionally came out, "You will cease this waiting for Sofia's return immediately. I have become aware of several _problems_ that must be dealt with."

She held out one hand toward the light in the center of the room, causing it to pulsate and change colors slightly before returning to its normal appearance. The two knights looked into the ball of light, noticing that the image in it had shifted--no longer displaying a scene of the distant world where a new Shin'an had just been born. In its place was a very different scene--the depths of a jungle. There was a man with silver hair walking there, with a single black wing emerging from one shoulder, being followed by three younger men.

And then, the scene changed dramatically. The winged man held out a hand and created a portal to the Dark Passage, and then the four walked into it, emerging in a swirling gray void. They walked the path of this strange void for several seconds, finally coming to another portal and passing through it to emerge in another world, a world with columns of marble holding up most of the buildings and various temples and other structures everywhere.

"Heh, look at that guy," the shorter knight said, "What an idiot. He came out of the portal right in the middle of the Coliseum, and right when--"

His sentence suddenly stopped as the silver-haired man and his surroundings faded, replaced with a small town with dirt paths leading off into the distance in both directions. Several green-haired people walked the streets of this small town, as well as many others, apparently from all different parts of the Twilight World.

"So, what must we do now?", the taller knight asked, turning away from the orb of light and back toward Kairi, "I suppose that Sephiroth must be eliminated, but what of this town you have shown us?"

"Vasilios," she said, turning toward the shorter knight, "Go to the town I have shown you and destroy all those who have green hair... once you are finished, take the road leading toward the mountains, where the ancient tower of the Twilight World's people still stands."

The shorter knight nodded, reaching down to the table and picking his helmet up off of it. He put it on, then held out one hand and opened a glowing white door in the air, taking a quick hop through it and then disappearing.

"And you," she said, turning back toward the taller of the two knights, "Go to the Coliseum and destroy Sephiroth."

"It will be done, my Queen," he said, putting his helmet on as well and then taking a step away from Kairi and the orb of light in the center of the room. He, too, held out his hand and generated a door of light, and then stepped through.

The lights in the room faded as the two doors both closed, and Kairi walked out of the room and back up the stairs toward her bedroom, her eyes beginning to dim to their normal color once again.


	38. Chapter 33: Trouble in the Little Town

**Chapter 33**

It was a hard road, traveling on foot to Castle Oblivion, but that was the only choice Roxas had--none of the trains even had the place on their maps, and most of the people who _did_ know where it was believed that the place was cursed, or inhabited by nothing but mindless Heartless and Nobodies that would kill anyone who entered.

Roxas knew better, of course, but he'd never be able to convince anyone else. He wasn't sure what kind of reaction he'd get if he told someone that he was going to join Organization XIII--nobody knew they had returned, and not everyone knew that the group had died in the first place. And worse, fear of the Organization (both the irrational, panicky kind and otherwise) was still common in the Twilight World, even ten years after they were destroyed.

But, before long, Roxas found that he had found his way onto a familiar road. It didn't seem like very long had passed, but he could tell he had traveled a very long way just by looking up at the sky--the familiar frozen sunset was gone, replaced by the blue skies and sunlight of mid-day. There were huge, puffy clouds in the sky, and the grassy fields in front of him stretched as far as the eye could see, with the road becoming a squiggly brown line in the distance before finally disappearing from sight entirely.

Roxas walked the grassy path for what had to be several hours, and the sky above was beginning to change once again--this time back to sunset, though a different kind of sunset from the one that hung over Twilight Town. Just ahead was a small town, run-down and mostly populated by old, rickety wooden buildings and the occasional old man standing on his front porch, watching the streets in front of his house while reading a newspaper.

He didn't stay there long--only for enough time to pick up a quick bite to eat. After that, it was back to the road--Castle Oblivion wasn't far now. He'd probably be arriving right around nightfall, if he kept his pace up. The familiar four-way crossroads came up over the next hill, and as he passed beyond the branching paths, his mood suddenly picked up.

He was about to start running down the path like he was a kid again when he noticed that someone was approaching from the opposite direction. Rather than running, he stopped immediately and tried to get a better look.

Whoever this person in the distance was, they were wearing a very familiar black cloak...

* * *

Zexion walked into the training room that Lexaeus and Otonashi had been using for the past few hours, watching as Lexaeus taught the newcomer how to fight more effectively. During this training, they had discovered that Otonashi's weapon had the power to extend itself to incredible lengths, though there was still no sign of Otonashi's other powers surfacing yet.

"Any progress since the last time I checked?", Zexion asked, walking over toward Lexaeus. The larger man turned around to face him, nodding slightly, before he spoke.

"He's learning fairly well," Lexaeus said, "Not the kind of improvement I saw in Michiko, certainly, but he appears to be learning at about the same rate that the rest of us did."

"And still no sign of his powers?"

"No. But that should come as no surprise," Lexaeus replied, "It has hardly been a day since Otonashi joined us. None of us mastered our powers on the first day, or even within the first year."

"That's true," Zexion said, "Unfortunate, though. It looks as if we'll need as much help as possible in the near future."

Zexion stopped and looked around the room for a second, noticing that something seemed to be missing. He thought about it, at first thinking that one of Marluxia's old decorations must have been destroyed during one of the recent training sessions, but then realized what the problem really was.

"By the way," Zexion asked, turning back toward Lexaeus, "Where has Michiko gone off to? She was in here just a few minutes ago, correct?"

"Michiko? She went for a walk not long ago," Lexaeus said, "She said she was going to visit her parents again. They're not far away--just a few miles from here, in an old town."

"Ah," the smaller man said, "Well, I suppose there's no problem then. She should be careful, though--it's hard to tell what could be happening out there."

* * *

The town of wooden shacks was suddenly illuminated as a glowing door appeared above an old inn, causing several annoyed customers inside to groan and roll over in their beds to block out the light. Seconds later, there was a sound of some heavy metal object thumping against the wooden roof of the building, followed shortly by the glowing door fading away.

That thump was quickly followed by another as the armored figure that had appeared on the roof hopped down, landing on the ground and standing there for a few seconds, looking around. The sunset was slowly beginning to fade and the sky was starting to grow dark, but the knight could still see perfectly, even through the dark-colored faceplate of his helmet.

Vasilios suddenly began laughing, the sound becoming halfway-metallic as it echoed inside his armor. The town he had been sent to attack was a pitiful place--it had almost destroyed _itself,_ thanks to the effects of time.

"Hey, you!", someone yelled, "Isn't it a little late to be walking around in full armor?"

Vasilios turned around to face the person who had spoken--a man with green hair, apparently the owner of the inn he had landed on based on how he was standing in the doorway of that building. The green-haired man took one look at the knight and gasped, reaching for the door to close it, but he was too slow.

A single Keyblade swing later, the man was lying dead on the ground, missing a large chunk of his head. Vasilios turned to walk off down another street, stopping for a second to look down all the alleys before he continued. Before long, he came to a house with a familiar symbol painted on its door.

"Ah... so this little place is where they all went," he said, running his hand over the door for a few minutes, "And they've even marked the houses where the descendants of royalty ended up... _this_ won't take long at all."

The knight's Keyblade slammed into the door, splitting the royal symbol painted on it in half and the slicing through the door itself not long afterward. He kicked down what was left of the door and then walked in, and immediately the entire house went silent.

In the next room over, a middle-aged woman ducked into an open closet. Upstairs, three children--two in their late teens and one much younger--suddenly stopped talking, ducking into the bed that the three of them had to share. In the dining room, the man of the house sat down his drink and carefully walked toward the front room, not knowing what to expect.

And before any of them could do anything else, Vasilios held up one hand and clenched his fist. A beam of light shot up into the air, cutting through the celing and continuing upward. A second passed, and then a shower of beams poured down onto the house, cutting hundreds of holes into the house and reducing it to a brittle shell of a building in seconds. The three children upstairs were killed almost instantly, impaled by the beams as they headed back down. The house creaked, then collapsed entirely, leaving nothing standing except for Vasilios and a few stray pieces of furniture.

The knight took a few steps over to the remains of an old closet, seeing that the green-haired woman was still just barely clinging to her life. He stopped in front of her, looking downward, and then smiled--though she couldn't see through his helmet.

"So you're the last of the royal bloodline," Vasilios said, holding out one of his hands toward the dying woman, "Go ahead. I'll help you up."

She reached her hand up weakly, grabbing the armored hand, and was pulled upward out of the rubble, coming face-to-helmet with the mysterious knight who had just destroyed her home and killed her family. The knight laughed quietly, holding her up by the hand for several seconds, before speaking again.

"There's a little tradition I have about royalty," he said, gripping the woman's arm tighter and holding her upright, "Especially when it comes to relatives of the Twilight World's royal family... like you."

"Wh... what are you going to do to me?", she said weakly. Whatever it was, it would have to be quick--she probably didn't have more than a minute or two left alive.

"Oh, I won't do _anything_ to _you,_" he said, raising his Keyblade high into the air, "Your body is worthless to me, and your soul is nothing but an afterthought. What I'm interested in... is your _heart._"

"What do you mean?", she said, "My... heart?"

She looked down once, and noticed that the knight's arm was beginning to glow brightly. The glow spread to her own arm, creeping across her skin until her entire torso was surrounded with the strange, unnatural-looking light. The Keyblade in Vasilios' other hand began to glow as well, and then began to pulse with rainbow-colored light.

"You see," Vasilios said, "Hearts are a source of incredible power... especially when Keyblades are involved. But no one person can have more than one heart of their own..."

She gasped, and her heart slowly emerged from her chest, glowing pink and rotating around slowly. It began to glow, but Vasilios swung his Keyblade down and thrust it through the heart, causing it to dull and fade back to its original pink color. It then began to shrink, and the Keyblade was surrounded by a pinkish aura for several seconds before the heart disappeared entirely.

The knight let go of the woman, causing her to fall in a heap on the floor. Unlike many, her body did not begin to fade away to transform into a Nobody--it was too late. She was too badly wounded to even move, let alone disappear and be reborn as a new creature entirely.

But as Vasilios walked off, before she finally lost consciousness, the dying woman manage to whisper one thing.

_"Michiko..."_


	39. Chapter 34: Child of the Pathway

**Author's Note:** Sorry! I wasn't able to fit the actual Michiko vs. Vasilios battle in this chapter without making it ridiculously long.

But don't worry, that (and another battle, though that one will be considerably shorter) should be coming pretty soon.

* * *

**Chapter 34**

Roxas and the cloaked girl approached each other slowly, neither of the two having any idea who the other was. Roxas had seen the girl in the image of Castle Oblivion that the strange being had showed him, but he knew nothing about her other than the fact that, underneath her hood, she was a teenage girl with green hair and purple eyes.

And Michiko didn't know much about Roxas, either--the only time she had seen a picture of him was in Vexen's database back at Castle Oblivion. She had heard the others mention Roxas occasionally, but she had never actually seen him in person--and he was much older now than he was when the picture in Vexen's computer was taken.

"Who are you?", Roxas asked, stopping almost directly in the middle of the crossroads as the girl noticed him and began to slow down a little.

"That's... um, a good question," she said, stopping just a few feet short of the spot where Roxas was standing, "You look kinda familiar. Who are _you?_ And why're you walking around with _keyblades_ strapped to your back? Where'd you get those anyway? Don't you have to--"

"Nevermind," Roxas said, "I guess it doesn't really matter what anyone's name is. I've got to get going."

"Oh... okay. Well," she said, starting to walk once again, "I'd better get going too. I'm going to see my family... I haven't seen them in a couple years."

As he passed by the girl and headed down the dirt road leading up to Castle Oblivion, Roxas couldn't help but think that he was basically doing the same thing. After all, he really didn't have a biological family--he couldn't expect Sora's family to take him in, at least, based on how Sora felt about Nobodies. The Organization was the closest thing to a family that he had ever had.

* * *

Meanwhile, on a small planet within the World of Light, a great tournament was about to begin. Thousands of people had come from miles around to watch, piling into the seats along the sides of the Coliseum and looking onward as the combatants slowly entered the arena as well.

The fighters that had lined up along the edges of the arena were incredibly diverse this year, even more so than usual. As the numbers of Heartless had decreased, there were very few of them in the tournament--the few that _were_ there were obviously being controlled by Hades, who was sitting in the back of the stands making what appeared to be "stay" and "wait, don't attack yet" gestures with his hands.

Along with the small group of Heartless, there were an assortment of local fighters, wearing various types of armor and holding spears, short swords, and a variety of other weapons. Along with the Heartless, these warriors were almost certainly going to be eliminated within the first two rounds--it always happened that way. The "cannon fodder" fighters, like the Heartless and average soldiers, weren't what the audience came to see anyway--they wanted to see the same kinds of incredible battles that they had seen years ago, when Hades would send in gigantic monsters to fight for him and the son of Zeus himself would even show up.

Fortunately, it seemed that this year's tournament would be one of _those_ tournaments, the kind people traveled from miles around to see. Among the ranks were quite a few competitors from other worlds, including one who had fought in the tournaments many years ago--Sephiroth, the silver-haired man with a single black wing sprouting from one shoulder and the largest sword that anyone there had ever seen.

And, up in the stands, there was another mysterious visitor--one who, unlike Sephiroth, nobody else recognized. He simply stood and watched, looking through the dark-colored visor of his helmet.

If anyone had noticed his presence at all, they would easily be able to tell that he wasn't just here to watch the tournament.

He was _waiting_ for something.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of a small town in the Twilight World, another knight was also waiting--or at least he seemed to be waiting, as he was standing against the wall of a building and occasionally looking around. He had completed his mission for Gil-Neithev already, of course--everyone in the town with green hair was dead. But Vasilios was never one to follow orders word-for-word.

Sure, he would get around to paying a visit to Castle Oblivion _eventually_--that was part of Gil-Neithev's orders, after all. Part of orders he had been given by the only being in the universe that Vasilios would ever take orders from. But Vasilios was never exactly fond of strict schedules. He'd get around to it eventually--when he was done with the town.

He stopped at a local restaurant, just next door to the inn where he had first arrived. There was no need to pay, since the green-haired owner of the restaurant was already too dead to worry about money. He didn't even have to wait for his meal to cook, since another green-haired dead man had a nice plate of food in front of him that hadn't been touched, and wasn't cold yet either.

Apparently not bothered by the fact that everyone else in the building was dead, Vasilios popped off his helmet and sat down to eat for a few minutes, then quickly got up and left.

* * *

As Michiko came over the hill and caught the first sight of her hometown, she couldn't help but feel that something was wrong. She wasn't sure why--nothing _looked_ terribly different about the town, at least not from where she was standing. Most of the lights were off, but since it was getting late, that wasn't too much of a surprise--people were probably going to bed.

No matter how much she tried to reassure herself that nothing was going to happen, she couldn't push the thought out of her head completely. Eventually it got to the point where every sound from within the tall grass would cause her to whip around, instinctively summoning her Keyblade and looking to see what was there. There was never much of anything there--the most dangerous thing she saw was a mere Shadow Heartless, with most of the other sounds coming from various large insects and small rodents.

Coming into the city, Michiko immediately knew that all of her suspicions were accurate--something was _horribly_ wrong. Lying in the open door of the local inn was a dead man, with his head hacked open by some sort of large, bladed weapon. In the doorways of other houses were similar bodies, each lying in a crumpled heap and bleeding from a single gaping wound.

And then, she caught sight of someone who appeared to be the only other living person left in the city. Coming out of a small restaurant was a man covered from head to toe in armor, shoving the door out of the way and then proceeding to shove a dead body in front of him out of the way as well.

"Hey!", she yelled to the man, summoning her Keyblade again, "Who are you? What happened here?"

The man reached up and adjusted his helmet, then turned to look toward Michiko, summoning a Keyblade of his own. He seemed to laugh quietly inside of his helmet, though the metallic echo of it was all that she could hear.

"I don't think there's any reason for you to know my name, little girl," the man said, "After all, nobody else here needed to know my name. What makes _you_ so special?"

Michiko stood still for a second, holding her Keyblade out in front of her. The armored man took a step forward, raising up his own Keyblade, and she suddenly jumped back.

"Well, I..."

Before she could finish her sentence, the knight apparently noticed something that he hadn't seen before. He disappeared in a blur, reappearing next to Michiko, and grabbed her Keyblade, examining it carefully.

"Hmm," he said, poking at the keychain on the end, "This symbol looks familiar... _very_ familiar indeed..."

"You know what it means?"

"Of course," he answered, letting go of the Keyblade, "The seal of the Twilight World's royal family. Funny that some girl would be running around carrying something marked with _that._"

"Why's that so funny? I've seen that all over the place," Michiko said, grabbing hold of her Keyblade, "I mean, it's even painted on my front door... how rare can it be?"

Suddenly, the mysterious knight seemed to take interest in Michiko once again. He took several steps away from her, holding his Keyblade in both hands and walking slowly.

"Ah... so that's who you are," he said, "Michiko, Child of the Pathway."

Then, spinning around and pointing his Keyblade toward the girl, he spoke again.

"So one of you did survive after all."


	40. Chapter 35: Vasilios

**Chapter 35**

"What... what do you mean by _that?_", Michiko asked, holding her Keyblade in front of herself and preparing for an attack, "What are you talking about? One of _who_ survived?"

"Hmm. _You_ don't know who you are," Vasilios said, taking another step toward her, "Fortunately, what you know or don't know won't matter for long. Hold still."

Of course, Michiko did anything _but_ hold still. As Vasilios raised up his Keyblade to attack, she charged forward, swinging her own weapon toward his head. There was a flash, and then suddenly the knight was gone.

"What? He's..."

Before she could even finish her sentence, Vasilios had reappeared directly in front of her, knocked her Keyblade out of her hands, and pinned her to the ground. She struggled, but the knight's hold was too strong for her to break--especially without the extra boost that her Keyblade provided.

"Not much like your mother, I see," he said, "Actually, you remind me more of someone I once knew... a long time ago, before I wore this armor."

"What? _Who?_"

"She was a queen, in fact... looked a lot like you," he said, "Same hair, same eyes, everything. Never would give up easily, either... no surprise that you're her last living relative."

"Wait," Michiko said, "If... if I'm her last relative, does that mean..."

"That your family is dead?", Vasilios finished, tapping his Keyblade with one hand, "Yes, they are. But don't worry... their hearts will always be with me."

"What is _that_ supposed to mean!?", Michiko yelled, shoving upward to try and throw off the knight's hold, "What happened? What happened to them!?"

"Gil-Neithev's orders," he answered. And then, as if talking about something completely normal and obvious, he added, "I killed them all, of course."

And Michiko snapped.

Vasilios was suddenly thrown backward, slamming into the ground, and Michiko's Keyblade vanished from the place it had landed and reappeared in her hands with a flash. Michiko jumped to her feet immediately, already breathing heavily, and rushed at Vasilios as he began to stand up as well.

Once again, the knight vanished before being hit, but this time he wasn't able to catch Michiko off guard. She jumped backward just as he reappeared in front of her, causing him to miss and slam his Keyblade into the ground. A cloud of dust was thrown up, and Michiko raised one arm over her face to keep it out of her eyes. Vasilios swung his Keyblade again, but this swing was blocked by Michiko's Keyblade, causing a metallic sound to echo throughout the now-abandoned town.

"You killed them," Michiko said, slamming Vasilios with her Keyblade several times and sending him flying backward, "You killed them all... you were going to kill _me_... and what for!?"

Vasilios didn't bother trying to answer. He flew backward again from another flurry of Keyblade strikes, then raised his Keyblade to block the next hit, causing sparks to fly everywhere as the two weapons smashed against each other. Michiko pulled upward, attempting to disarm the knight, but Vasilios jerked his Keyblade away before it could happen and swung it toward Michiko's legs. She hopped into the air, dodging the attack, and then brought down the sharp point on the end of her Keyblade slamming into Vasilios' forearm.

Vasilios jerked back, pulling his arm away from the Keyblade before it penetrated his armor, and looked down at his arm. It was only a dent--but apparently, the fact that the Keyblade could damage his armor at all worried him somewhat. As Michiko ran in to attack again, he rolled backwards along the ground, stopping about ten feet away from the girl and firing a beam of Light from his hand toward her.

The beam grazed by Michiko, slicing a section of cloth away from her cloak, but failed to do any real harm at all. Before Vasilios stood up all the way, Michiko had made up for the distance between them and aimed another powerful strike toward her opponent's head. He ducked just in time to avoid it, and then swung his own Keyblade like a bat, slamming Michiko in the stomach and causing her to fall backward onto the ground.

"Ah, perfect," Vasilios said, walking toward the girl and holding his Keyblade over her, "It's time to add another heart to my collection, it seems."

The Keyblade began to glow brightly, but Michiko didn't even attempt to move. The glow from the knight's weapon spread to the ground, and flickered around Michiko's body for several minutes, but something seemed to be wrong. Vasilios began tapping his foot impatiently, waiting for the familiar sight of the girl's heart emerging from her chest and being absorbed into the Keyblade, just like all the others had been.

But that sight never came. The glow faded, flickering away from the green-haired girl and the ground beneath her and receding to Vasilios' Keyblade before disappearing entirely.

"Hmm... strange," he said, walking away from Michiko and looking over his Keyblade carefully, "The blade won't accept the girl's heart... now, I can't say I've ever seen _that_ happen before... I wonder why..."

Before he was able to leave the town that he had emptied, a voice--similar to Michiko's, but seeming different somehow--from behind him answered.

"It's because _she_ doesn't have a heart to take."

Vasilios turned around, readying his Keyblade, but nothing could have prepared him for what he saw. Michiko was still there, of course--she had apparently gotten back up again after being knocked down, as was expected. The thing that surprised him was not the green-haired girl standing in front of him, but the weapon she was holding.

Her Keyblade had changed shape, no longer a dull gray weapon set with several green crystals and double blades on the end. It was now a strange, glowing, nearly-translucent red in color. The greenish crystals that once decorated it had been replaced with jagged holes, making it look as if the crystals had been torn out by force. The handle of the weapon, once gray and decorated only with several spikes, was now bright red and shaped into what seemed to be an upside-down heart. The spikes were still there, however--and in greater numbers, emerging from the edges of the heart-shaped handle in all directions. The bars that had crossed the weapon's shaft were still there, but now they resembled half-broken daggers, jutting out of the shaft at odd angles. The double-sided blade on the end was still similar, but the key-shaped side was warped and seemed to be about to melt.

"What... that's _impossible!_", Vasilios said, nearly yelling, "Only the Keyblade of Light can change shape... but... I thought..."

"You thought wrong," Michiko said, swinging the new Keyblade downward and slamming it into the ground, "Probably not the first time."

As her Keyblade struck the ground, Vasilios suddenly found it very difficult to stand. The earth shook underneath the two of them, apparently not affecting Michiko at all but nearly knocking the armored knight over. Buildings around them collapsed into rubble in seconds, sending chunks of debris and clouds of dust flying everywhere.

"You're... you're destroying your own town!"

"Who cares!?", Michiko screamed, "Everyone's dead already! There's nothing left of this place for me to save..."

Another strike from the Keyblade, this time aimed at Vasilios, and the knight was sent spinning through the air and falling flat on his back into a pile of rubble that was once an old three-story building. He stood up and blocked several more blows from the girl's Keyblade, the shock from each impact sending metallic echoes ringing through his armor and filling the air with the sound of metal clashing against metal. He jumped back and fired several blasts of Light at Michiko, but she swung her Keyblade in an arc--just as she had learned in her training with Lexaeus--and sent them flying off into the air harmlessly.

Michiko dashed across the dusty, rubble-filled ground, leaving two lines of empty dirt in her path and sending the chunks of old wood flying up in all directions. She smashed Vasilios in the side of the head, putting a dent and several cracks in his helmet, and then smashed him in the chest, knocking him back into the grass outside the town's borders. He stood up again and generated a shield of Light around himself, but she just jumped and swung downward onto the barrier, shattering it instantly as if it were made of glass.

The Keyblade swung downward, tearing through the knight's armor and becoming wedged into his shoulder. Vasilios let out a horrible, echoing gasp, the type of sound that no living _thing_ should ever be able to make, and then reached up toward the wound, attempting to extract the Keyblade from it himself.

But Michiko did that for him, tearing it out of the wound at the same speed that it had entered it and then swinging again, sending the knight smashing into the hard ground beneath the grass. He stood up, still clutching his shoulder, and then hissed at Michiko.

"You... you _broke_ my armor... but how..."

"Hold still," she said, "I'll break the rest of you next."

Vasilios growled and held up his Keyblade in one last attempt to block, but Michiko quickly disarmed him, sending his weapon flying into the grass and stabbing into the dirt blade-first. He attempted to throw a punch at the girl's face, but a sharp pain in his shoulder caused him to stop in mid-swing and nearly fall over, clutching the broken part of his armor in an attempt to stop the pain.

"Don't bother," Michiko said, raising her Keyblade high above her head, "You'll only feel it for a second, anyway."

Vasilios said nothing at first, only kneeling in the grass with one hand over his wounded shoulder, but then slowly he began to laugh. The sound started out quiet, echoing inside his helmet, and then grew louder and louder, becoming more and more metallic as it went. Finally, Michiko couldn't stand to hear the sound of it any longer.

For a moment, her strength seemed to surpass even that of Lexaeus as she swung her Keyblade toward the horrible laughing knight's head.

And then the laughing stopped.

Michiko crumpled to the ground, exhausted, and let her Keyblade slip out of her hands. Before finally losing consciousness, she saw only two things--her Keyblade flickering and returning to its normal form before disappearing entirely, and a bright light surrounding Vasilios' body before it too vanished.


	41. Chapter 36: The Tournament Begins

**Chapter 36**

There was a thump against the door, and the doorknob rattled around. It was obvious that it wasn't going to hold much longer--the confused, Darkness-fearing mob on the other side had smashed into it so many times that it was beginning to crack in several places.

"That door isn't looking so good," Riku said, "And there's no way I can concentrate enough to help these two out with all of that going on..."

"I know," Mickey said, staring at the door with a worried look on his face, "There's no other way out of the room, but... I can't just go out there and fight my own people..."

Another slam into the door--this time it was a pitchfork. One of the points on the end wedged into a crack in the door and poked through slightly, before quickly being pulled back out and thrust back in again in another spot. It was becoming increasingly more obvious that the door wasn't going to last much longer.

"Well, we're going to have to do _something_ before long," Riku said, rushing toward the door to attempt to support it for a little longer, "This door's not going to hold--and they're probably not going to want to talk it over when they get in."

"Well, it's getting pretty late... if we manage to get outside," Mickey said, looking around the room to see if there was an exit he hadn't thought of yet, "It'll be dark enough to hide until things calm down in here."

Mickey began to search the wall for any secret passages he might have forgotten about, while Riku continued to hold the door onto its hinges, bracing it against the angry mob outside. More and more members of the mob slammed the door, causing splinters to fly off and stick in Riku's hair in several places.

This continued for several minutes, with the door eventually becoming so damaged that Riku had to constantly dodge incoming pitchforks and other tools-turned-weapons. Mickey had searched almost the entire room, but had found nothing that would help them--the loose bricks were nothing more than loose bricks, rather than being secret triggers that would have opened a hidden passage.

"Found anything yet?", Riku asked, jerking away from the door just in time to dodge an incoming shovel, "This thing's falling off its hinges already... if we don't get out of here pretty soon, then..."

Suddenly, just when all hope seemed to be lost, a glowing door appeared on the opposite side of the room from where Riku was standing. It flickered slightly for a second, as if struggling to exist, and then was joined by a second, smaller door immediately beside it.

"What?", Riku said, nearly letting go of the shattered wooden door, "That door... I mean, _those_ doors..."

"If that's what I think it is," Mickey said, his mood suddenly picking up once again, "We'd better go on through before anything else happens here."

Riku let go of the door he was holding, causing it to wobble slightly as if it was about to fall over. A chunk of wood fell off of the doorframe, nearly landing on Riku, and he quickly dashed over toward the larger of the two glowing doors and dove into it. Mickey looked back one more time, seeing an axe chop through the brittle remains of the door, before he too hopped through. And then, as suddenly as they had appeared, the doors of light were gone.

* * *

Sora paced back and forth on the balcony, looking out over the city. It was barely past eight o'clock, but Kairi was already fast asleep, leaving Sora alone--and lonely. Hardly anyone was still up and about, it seemed--and he didn't understand. Why was it that his city, which once kept active long after sundown, now seemed to go into hibernation as soon as night fell?

Even the three mysterious knights--the Warriors of Light who had come from far away just to serve under his and Kairi's rule--were gone, apparently off doing something important on other worlds. And Riku... he hadn't seen his old friend in days.

For that matter, he hadn't seen _any_ of his old friends in days. More like in _years._ Riku had turned back to the Darkness again somehow, and was on the run on some other world; Wakka was away playing blitzball; Selphie had finished college at Radiant Garden but had decided to stay there afterward; and Tidus... he hadn't seen or heard a word from Tidus in years, and it seemed that nobody else had any luck in finding out what had happened to him either.

If it wasn't for the recent visit by Donald and Goofy, Sora would have thought that something horribly wrong was going on again, just like years ago when he had to go off and battle the Heartless to save the worlds. But that couldn't be possible--there hadn't been signs of large numbers of Heartless in ages, and the numbers of Nobodies seemed to be rapidly decreasing as well.

"Maybe," Sora said to himself, "It isn't the Heartless this time..."

He stopped and shook his head, ending that particular train of thought before it got out of control, and headed off toward his bedroom.

* * *

In the back row of the Coliseum's stands, the mysterious knight stood and watched. The first two rounds of the tournament had just finished up, with all of Hades' generic Heartless and most of the normal soldiers having been defeated. Now it was time for the real battles to begin--and the crowd apparently knew this, cheering and clapping and yelling for the next round to begin.

And, before long, it did. The scoreboards were updated, with the defeated warriors from the first round being removed and the winners moving up to the next round. And then, the first battle of the round began--Sephiroth was matched up with a tall, brown-haired man named Leon, wielding an odd weapon which appeared to be a gun with a long sword-like blade attached.

"Sephiroth," Leon said, standing completely still and holding onto the Gunblade's handle tightly, "Tell me something. Where's Cloud?"

"If I knew, I wouldn't be wasting my time here," the silver-haired man said, drawing his incredibly long sword and pointing it toward his opponent. The two stood still, waiting for the announcement, but both of them turned and looked toward the edge of the arena as they noticed the sounds of instrument cases being dragged across the ground.

"What are they _doing?_" Sephiroth asked, staring at the three silver-haired teenagers who were getting out a variety of musical instruments from their cases and preparing them. The tall, muscular-looking one pulled out a set of drums. The long-haired one opened up the largest of the cases and brought out an electric guitar, then plugged it in into something that seemed to be a speaker. The shortest of the three had no instrument, instead pulling out several pages of sheet music and setting them up on a stand in front of him.

And just as the three were finished getting ready, the announcer said the word and the battle began. Leon immediately held out his weapon in a blocking position, anticipating Sephiroth's first blows and blocking them without much trouble. He then pulled the trigger of the weapon, causing a flash of flames and a small explosion to erupt from the weapon and knocking his opponent's sword off balance.

And just then, the three teenagers began their performance as well--a very familiar song that they called "One Winged Angel." Yazoo played the guitar, Loz played the drums, and after a while Kadaj joined in, singing in Latin--which, surprisingly, was actually understandable by a few members of the audience.

Sephiroth grumbled to himself for a second, cursing at the teenagers as he regained his balance, but before he could attack again Leon was within range. He swung at Sephiroth with his Gunblade, slamming the weapon into his chest and pushing him back, but Sephiroth quickly countered with a single powerful slash that knocked Leon back a good twenty feet.

Leon stood back up, using his weapon to support himself at first and then pulling it back out of the ground again. Sephiroth rushed in for another attack, slashing rapidly and leaving dozens of slashes in Leon's jacket--and probably more underneath, though these cuts weren't large enough to be visible.

Sephiroth brought down his sword toward Leon's head, but he dove out of the way just in time to avoid the attack and then slashed at Sephiroth's legs. The attack came close, but was deflected by Sephiroth's sword before any damage was done. Sephiroth then jumped back, holding up one of his hands and chanting something quietly.

Leon ran at him once again, but before he could cross the distance between them, a gigantic pillar of flames erupted from the ground underneath him. He tried to dodge out of the way, but the attack was so sudden that it was impossible--the flames flashed up around him, igniting his clothes almost instantly and sending him flying up into the air. The flames quickly faded from sight, and Leon came crashing down onto the ground, his clothes still burning with small flames here and there and his skin turning red from overheating.

Over on the edge of the arena, the three teenagers suddenly stopped playing their song and switched to a different one--a short, happy little tune, which was over almost as soon as it started.

They then put down their instruments and cheered along with everyone else in the crowd as the medics came in to provide Leon with healing potions and make sure he survived his fight.

Back up in the stands, the tall knight continued to watch. It seemed that Sephiroth was still incredibly powerful--perhaps not at his peak, as he had been years before, but still more than enough to defeat any of the other competitors in the tournament.

His death--and that of the Darkness within him--would bring much power to Gil-Neithev.


	42. Chapter 37: A Lucky Escape

**Chapter 37**

Riku flew into the glowing door, not knowing exactly where he would be when he came out. Not even a second later, he came out of an identical door, closing his eyes before he hit the ground and rolling to soften the impact. The door was nothing like the Dark Passage he had once been able to travel through--the Dark Passage was slower and more confusing, and to get anywhere you had to walk through the gray void inside until another portal opened.

The door, on the other hand, was instant transportation. There was no path beyond the door at all--just one door connected to another, moving from one world to another without actually moving at all.

Riku pulled himself up off the ground, slowly opening his eyes to see a strange landscape. Wherever he looked, the ground was covered in greenish-blue grass and various odd plants. There seemed to be a city somewhere in the distance, with neon lights illuminating it even though there were no lights on inside the buildings.

The place looked somewhat familiar, but he couldn't quite remember where he had seen it before. The closest place that he could think of was darker than this place that he was in now--so dark you could barely see where you were going.

And that was when he looked up into the sky. Hovering over the horizon were two moons, one much larger and brighter than the other--the first thing that came to mind was Saix, the moonlight-powered berserker of the Organization. Fighting Saix in a world with two moons... now _that_ would be a nightmare.

After the thought of Saix left his mind, Riku finally realized where he had been sent by the door. There was a reason why the place seemed brighter than he remembered--two moons were in the sky, rather than just one.

He had once again arrived in the World of Darkness.

* * *

Mickey tumbled through the smaller door, not knowing where it would lead but sure that it would be somewhere safe--or at least safer than a dead-end room with an angry mob just outside of the only door. He rolled along the ground, sending dry pine needles fluttering everywhere, and was just about to stop himself and get up when he slammed into a tree.

More pine needles--these mostly still green--showered down onto him, along with a little bit of snow. The small king rubbed his head slightly, brushing away the pine needles, and then finally stood up.

He was in the middle of a pine forest, with trees and various small bushes as far as he could see. It was very dark out--partly from the enormous trees, and partly from the fact that it was probably well after sundown already--but at least it seemed safe.

Mickey looked around for a few minutes before finally noticing a small dirt path heading away between the trees. It looked like it hadn't been used for a long time, as there were no footprints and some grass was beginning to grow over it, but it was the only path around, so he headed off along the little road through the forest toward wherever it was that the road would lead.

* * *

Roxas walked up the last section of the path, coming up to the doorstep of Castle Oblivion. The place looked very different now than it had before--it now looked like a gigantic white tower, reaching up high into the sky. He thought about it for a second, and then remembered something that Zexion had once mentioned to him--the strange, distorted building that the castle had once appeared to be was only an illusion. The tall, white tower was Castle Oblivion's true form.

He shoved the enormous doors at the front of the castle, and slowly they creaked open. The castle looked about the same on the inside as he had remembered; it looked a little dusty, like it hadn't been cleaned as much lately as it had years ago, but it was still in pretty good condition.

Roxas stood in the front room of the castle for several minutes, just looking around at the place and remembering the time he spent there years before. Hanging on the wall, covered in a small layer of dust, was one of the pictures Naminé had drawn during her stay in the castle--a picture of several of the younger members of the Organization, standing against a wall and wearing casual clothes rather than the black Organization cloaks they were usually seen in. The picture apparently came before he had joined, as the only people in the picture were Zexion, Axel, Demyx, and Marluxia.

Several minutes later, Roxas finally decided to go meet the last surviving members of the Organization, and headed down the stairs into the castle's basement levels.

* * *

"He's here," Vexen said, gesturing to the others and then pointing toward the screen of his computer. Zexion and Lexaeus immediately began to walk over toward him, followed shortly afterward by Otonashi.

"So Roxas _is_ back," Zexion said, watching the blinking yellow dot that represented the young Nobody travelling down the castle's floors and heading toward them, "Do you think he's come to rejoin the Organization?"

"Undoubtedly," Vexen said, "I can't imagine any other reason why he would be here. The fact that he even knows how to find this place is a sure sign that he's regained his memory of us somehow..."

"It would appear so," Lexaeus said, watching as the dot moved throughout each floor of the castle, looking around in the various rooms for a few minutes on each floor before moving on to the next. It wouldn't be long before he would reach the twelfth basement of Castle Oblivion, where Vexen's lab was located.

"So, who exactly is Roxas?", Otonashi asked, "I don't remember hearing much about him before."

"Hmm... that's odd," Zexion said, "Especially odd considering that Riku was the one who--"

"Zexion," Lexaeus interrupted, "There are some things in Riku's past that would be better left unmentioned... especially with Riku's father in the room."

"What do you mean?", Otonashi asked, raising his voice slightly and taking a step toward Zexion and Lexaeus, "What did Riku do? And what does Roxas have to do with it?"

"Hm... let's just say that everyone makes mistakes," Vexen said, "And your son is no exception."

"No more talk of past mistakes for now," Lexaeus said, "There are more important things to do... such as welcoming an old friend who's stopping by to visit."

* * *

Meanwhile, the tournament was still going on in the Coliseum. The third round was complete, with the last few normal soldiers being eliminated and even several of those who seemed like they had a chance being knocked out of the competition.

The fourth round had already begun, with Sephiroth once again placed in the first bracket. His opponent was a huge, heavily-armored man wielding a ball and chain, who concealed his face with a helmet and for some reason refused to give his name to the tournament officials. He had easily defeated his first two opponents, but...

His fight against Sephiroth ended almost before it had even started. He began to swing his weapon around in a circle, then whipped the chain forward in an attempt to smash Sephiroth. It smashed, of course--but not in the way he had expected. Rather than hurting Sephiroth at all, the metal ball on the end of the chain actually shattered as it hit Sephiroth, sending chunks of broken iron flying everywhere.

Before the armored man could get ready for another attack, Sephiroth waved his hand and a portal opened up in the sky above the arena. A swarm of meteors approached from somewhere in space, with one of them flying a bit faster than the rest and making its way out of the portal first. Before any more could emerge from the portal, Sephiroth put his hand down and it closed instantly.

One meteor was more than enough, however. Sephiroth's opponent held up his arms in an attempt to block it, but the meteor kept coming, slamming into him and sending him flying across the arena and leaving a massive dent in the wall behind him--and nearly breaking the man's armor as well.

The medics came over to check on the defeated warrior, making sure he was only unconscious and not dead, before Sephiroth was moved on to the fifth round.

And, up in the stands, the mysterious knight kept watching. He had hoped that Sephiroth would be worn down and weakened by fighting in the tournament, but it seemed that nobody else fighting today was nearly powerful enough to do so. It didn't make any difference, though--Sephiroth being at full strength would only prolong the fight between the two of them a bit longer.

The knight reached up and adjusted his helmet, then rested his Keyblade on his shoulder as he watched the tournament continue.

As Sephiroth walked out of the arena, he suddenly felt a strange presence in the arena--something he had never felt before, though part of him somehow seemed to recognize it. He looked around the Coliseum for a second, staring at each member of the crowd to try and find where the strange presence was coming from, but just as he finished looking over half of the building the presence suddenly faded.

Up in the stands, the knight dematerialized his Keyblade and crossed his arms, still watching through the dark visor of his helmet and waiting for the tournament to be finished.


	43. Chapter 38: Rejoining

**Chapter 38**

King Mickey walked along the old dirt path, looking around occasionally as he went. The trees were getting a bit thinner now, but still it was obvious that he was nowhere near the edge of the forest.

Several minutes later, after a few turns and several forks in the road, the path had become a bit wider. For the first time, the road looked as if it had actually been used somewhat recently, unlike the part where he had first arrived in this world. There were some footprints here and there, though most of them were so old that they were barely visible anymore.

The sky above had grown even darker now than it was before, however, and Mickey knew that Heartless and Nobodies could be lurking anywhere. Or worse, those horrible glowing creatures--those _things_ that had attacked right in the place he had thought was the safest.

So the little King decided to stop and rest for the night, and continue his journey through the forest in the morning. He summoned up a small sphere of light in his hand, using it like a torch to illuminate the ground, and searched around until he found a flat place without too many rocks.

And then, he reached into his pocket and threw a small, triangular capsule onto the ground. The magical tent expanded almost immediately upon hitting the grass, ropes unrolling from it like tentacles and lashing themselves around stakes to hold the thing onto the ground. As the last sparkles of stored-up magic faded, the front of the tent flapped open and a small sleeping-bag appeared inside.

Mickey walked into the tent, not even having to duck to get in thanks to his size, and closed the front flap carefully before ducking into his sleeping bag and drifting off to sleep for the night.

* * *

Riku wandered through the blue-green fields of the World of Darkness, not knowing where he was or where he was going. He had been there before, of course, but his travels in the World of Darkness were still very limited. He and Mickey walked on the edges of the world for several days after being sealed beyond the Door, but Xehanort's Heartless resurfaced soon afterward and cut that visit short.

Later, he had traveled into that dark city that the Organization called home on a mission to capture Roxas--no, to help Sora become complete again. They had clashed twice on the rooftops, with several months between the first battle and the last. After that, Riku hadn't returned to the World of Darkness until the final stretch of the battle against Organization XIII.

The grasslands he walked in now didn't seem to be very close to anywhere he recognized--there was a city in the distance, but it was so far away that it would be impossible to tell if it was the so-called "World That Never Was" that he had visited before. There was one thing very obviously missing from the city skyline--the floating castle that the Organization used as their base. It was only slightly damaged in the final battles against Xemnas, but now it seemed to have disappeared entirely.

That is, if the city on the horizon was the same one he had been to before in the first place. He didn't know enough about the world to know if there were other cities like that or not.

For hours, Riku walked alone in the grasslands. Occasionally a small Heartless would appear in the tall grass around him, but when he approached them they would run away rather than attacking. He hadn't seen even a sign of any Nobodies yet, which seemed odd considering how many of them were there before.

_"Or maybe they're all still in that city,"_ he thought, looking off into the distance toward the mysterious, neon-lit city, _"Just sitting there where the Organization left them... and _wiggling_..."_

* * *

"Welcome back," came the deep voice of Lexaeus, greeting Roxas as he stepped through the door to Vexen's lab.

"Yes," Zexion said, looking toward the door, "It's been a while, hasn't it."

Along with the two of them were Vexen, who said nothing but was furiously typing away at one of his computers, and another man with silver hair, who Roxas didn't recognize at all. Zexion uncrossed his arms and began to walk over toward the door, while Lexaeus turned toward Vexen to see what he was doing on the computer.

"Nice to see a familiar face around," Zexion said, holding out one hand toward Roxas, "With all the problems we've been having lately, we'll need all the help we can get."

Roxas looked at Zexion for a second, then held out his hand as well, shaking hands with the blue-haired man. For the first time, Roxas actually had to look _down_ to be on eye level with Zexion--he had grown a lot since the last time he had been here.

"Yeah... I know what you mean. The Shin'an, right?", Roxas said, loosening his grip on Zexion's hand after a few seconds, "Those glowing bug things. They're everywhere..."

"_Shin'an..._ so they do have a name," Zexion said, "Hmm... it seems you've been doing a bit of research on your own. Good."

Zexion walked back over toward Vexen's computer, with Roxas following a few feet behind him. The three watched the screen carefully as Vexen typed in various strings of numbers, putting in so much information that it was difficult to read it all before the screen began to scroll some of it away. However, reading it wasn't necessary for long; after a few more seconds of typing, Vexen pushed a single button and the screen switched to Roxas' information page.

A line scanned over the picture in the database--a much younger Roxas, only fifteen years old--and replaced it with a more current image. Roxas had easily grown half a dozen inches since then, and he was no longer as skinny as he had been before. Shortly after the picture changed, the rest of the information in Roxas' profile changed as well, showing his new height, weight, age, and other basic statistics about him.

"Ah," Vexen said, turning away from the computer and looking toward Roxas, "I'm almost done... only a few small pieces of information left before Roxas' new and improved database entry is complete."

"What's left?", Roxas said, peeking over at the computer screen and looking for spots that hadn't been filled in yet, "Height, weight, age, species, hair color, eye color, blood type, body mass index... why in the world do you need to keep record of all this stuff?"

Vexen frowned slightly at that, then quickly turned back to the computer and scrolled through Roxas' profile for several seconds until the few remaining slots that were left blank appeared.

"Ah, here it is," Vexen said, pointing toward the screen, "Your weapon, your element, and a picture of you in the standard Organization XIII uniform. Assuming there haven't been any dramatic changes in the past ten years, I suppose that all we'll need is the picture."

"Already there," Roxas said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a folded-up piece of thick, black cloth. Apparently he had stopped by the closet filled with cloaks on his way in and had picked out one that fit already, and before long Roxas had slipped on the long cloak over his casual clothes.

"Ahem."

Vexen cleared his throat, pointing downward toward Roxas' feet. The younger Nobody looked down, and then almost immediately noticed what Vexen was talking about--when wearing an Organization cloak over them, his baggy pants and large tennis-shoes stuck out like a sore thumb.

"Er... guess I'll go back up to the storeroom and grab the _rest_ of the uniform," Roxas said, laughing nervously for a second afterward. He had been in such a hurry to catch up with the old Organization that he had forgotten that you couldn't wear your normal clothes under the cloak--not unless you knew how to use the Darkness to conceal their appearance, anyway, and Roxas never was very good at using Darkness for much of anything.

While Roxas rushed out of the room and headed back up toward the closet, Vexen and Zexion began to laugh quietly. Even Lexaeus began to smile a bit, which was a rare sight these days--Roxas, it seemed, was still capable of lifting people's moods just by being around, just as he had done long ago.

The whole time, Otonashi just sat and watched. As he stared at the image on the computer screen, he began to feel that Roxas seemed oddly familiar--but no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't quite figure out why.


	44. Chapter 39: Zenos

**Chapter 39**

The final round of the tournament had ended, with Sephiroth standing over yet another defeated opponent--this time, it was Hercules himself, the one that everyone had expected to win. It had been a longer fight than most of the ones Sephiroth had been in, but even Hercules wasn't strong enough.

As always, the medics rushed in and made sure Hercules was okay, then quickly ran off to attend to some of the weaker competitors who had been injured during their fights. Sephiroth just stood there during the announcement that he had won, apparently not really caring that much about whatever prize he would win. Over on the other side of the arena, the three teenagers that had been following him were playing their victory song, this time an extended version rather than just the first part.

And up in the stands, the mysterious knight stood and watched. As the crowd's cheering (and booing, likely from those that had lost money on bets that Hercules would win) began to die down and Sephiroth turned to leave, he summoned his Keyblade and then slowly floated down to the middle of the Coliseum, landing on the ground a few feet behind Sephiroth.

The strange presence that Sephiroth felt before was back, and far stronger than it had been before. He spun around, coming face-to-face with the mysterious knight--well, face-to-helmet was more like it, since the knight's helmet covered his entire head. The crowd mumbled to themselves, apparently confused--the last battle had already finished, so what was this guy doing?

"Sephiroth," the knight said, lifting his massive Keyblade and letting it rest on his shoulder, "So we finally meet."

"Who are you?", Sephiroth asked, readying his sword in case the knight decided to attack rather than keep on talking.

"Just a warrior of the Light, a servant of Gil-Neithev," he said.

"Your _name._"

"My name is of no concern to you, Sephiroth," he said, "But I suppose I have no reason not to tell you. I am Zenos."

The tournament announcer, as well as several other people in charge of overseeing the fights, started to walk over toward the two, but before they could get close, Zenos raised one hand toward them. A barrier of Light shot up from the ground underneath them, slicing one of the officials in half and knocking the rest backward. Several seconds later, the barrier began to form into a dome, and surrounded the entire arena, leaving only the seats on the outside uncovered.

"Now that the tournament is finished," Zenos said, taking a step toward Sephiroth, "The real fight can begin."

Sephiroth spun around and slashed at the knight with his sword, but Zenos just reached up and caught the blade with his free hand. Sephiroth tried to pull his sword free of the knight's grip, but the blade wouldn't budge.

"You should know, Sephiroth, that you cannot win," he said, moving the Keyblade off of his shoulder and pointing it at the silver-haired man, "Even at the peak of your power, when the Darkness was strong, you would not have been able to win."

Zenos let go of Sephiroth's sword and swung his Keyblade toward him, but Sephiroth jumped backwards, avoiding the attack. He then rushed at the armored warrior again, this time slashing at him repeatedly. The sounds of metal clanging against metal filled the arena, but Zenos only stood there, completely motionless--it seemed as if he wasn't making even the slightest effort to dodge or block any of Sephiroth's blows.

Before Sephiroth knew what hit him, he was sent flying backwards by a powerful Keyblade swing. Despite the size and weight of the knight's Keyblade, the blow came incredibly fast--_too_ fast. Sephiroth tumbled through the air, landing on his back on the ground nearly twenty feet away from where he had been standing before. He quickly got up again, expecting another attack, but Zenos was still standing in the middle of the arena, just holding his Keyblade and waiting.

"You are capable of far more than this, Sephiroth," Zenos said, slowly beginning to walk over toward where Sephiroth had landed, "Unleash your full strength. Call on the Darkness within you--your source of power."

Sephiroth held out one hand and Darkness began to surge around it, sending purplish sparks of energy everywhere and illuminating the ground below him with a strange, purplish-black glow. Zenos nodded, then took another step forward.

"Fine... I'll show you," Sephiroth said, "I was holding back before, but I'll show you my true power now. Only Cloud can defeat me... you'll know that soon enough."

At the mention of Cloud, Zenos began to laugh, the sound of it echoing inside his helmet for nearly a minute. The knight took another step toward Sephiroth, and then spoke once again.

"Ha... Cloud, indeed," Zenos said, almost laughing again, "How ridiculous. Cloud is _nothing_--merely a confused little boy with a toy sword compared to you. You, of all people, should know this. Even now, when the Darkness is weak, Cloud could not defeat you."

Sephiroth raised up his hand and pointed it toward Zenos as he approached, sending a massive blast of Darkness flying toward the knight. Zenos held up his hand as well, firing an equally large blast of Light, and the two collided in midair, the opposing forces of the two blasts mixing and sparking against each other, each seeming to be trying to absorb the other into itself. Then the two blasts fused together in a massive explosion, sending both Sephiroth and Zenos flying backward and washing the ground with an odd, silvery-blue light.

The Warrior of Light and the one-winged angel of Darkness both stood up at once, rushing toward each other. Zenos' Keyblade and Sephiroth's Masamune smashed against each other hundreds of times in a matter of seconds, and what was left of the crowd stared in awe at the two--though half the time they were moving so quickly that nobody in the crowd could actually see what was happening. Sephiroth flew into the air, firing blasts of Darkness downward toward his opponent, but Zenos quickly ended the air attack by causing the barrier of Light to lower several feet and slam Sephiroth back toward the ground.

As Sephiroth stood up, Zenos attacked again, smashing his Keyblade into the silver-haired man's face and knocking him down to the ground once again. He teleported out of the way of another blow, reappearing behind Zenos and slashing at his head. Zenos ducked out of the way of the attack, then swung his Keyblade at Sephiroth again, just barely missing him. Sephiroth caused a pillar of flames to erupt from the ground beneath the knight, but Zenos stepped to the side and avoided it.

More flames burst up from the ground, but Zenos jumped through the fire and rammed into Sephiroth with his shoulder, sending him flying backwards and causing the flames to fizzle out and disappear immediately. Sephiroth jumped aside just in time to avoid a beam of Light fired from Zenos' Keyblade, but the explosion from that beam was larger than he had expected and he was sent flying upward. He caught himself just before slamming into the barrier overhead, then came flying down at Zenos again with his sword held forward.

This time, the Masamune hit a weak point in Zenos' armor, and rather than glancing off with little more than a scratch, it pierced through--impaling Zenos through the shoulder. The knight let out a bizarre, echoing scream--or perhaps "roar" would be a better word to describe it. It was a horrible sound, like nothing Sephiroth--or anyone in the crowd--had heard before. Some of the younger or weaker members of the crowd fainted upon hearing it, while others felt their skin turn cold and noticed that everyone around them seemed a bit more pale than they should have been.

Sephiroth pulled his sword out of the knight's shoulder, and then stood and watched, expecting his opponent to fall over dead. But that moment never came--instead, Zenos simply clutched his wound with his free hand and stood up straight once again.

"You have been a worthy opponent, Sephiroth," Zenos said, "But I'm afraid I can't allow this fight to go on much longer. It ends now."

For the first time, Sephiroth actually seemed _scared_--or at least worried. Various thoughts ran through his head--was this knight holding back the whole time? Was Cloud not really the only one who could defeat him?

But most of all, Sephiroth heard a strange voice in his head--the same voice that had been with him since that day, more than ten years ago, when Cloud had killed the creature known as "Jenova." He remembered very little of the day--only that he had been somewhere nearby, for some reason, at the moment when Jenova died. There was an explosion--Cloud was thrown back, and an odd cloud of Darkness began to drift around the area... and then everything went black.

_"Not yet...",_ the voice said, echoing inside Sephiroth's mind, _"Not... yet..."_

Zenos removed his hand from the wound on his shoulder, and gripped his massive Keyblade with both hands as he began to come closer and closer to Sephiroth. The hole in the knight's armor was glowing now--a strange, dim glow, coming from underneath the armor rather than from the armor itself.

"Sephiroth... you have a Darkness within you that is greater than any other," the knight said, raising his Keyblade high above his head, "But that Darkness, like all Darkness, is destined to be washed away and erased by the Light of Gil-Neithev."

"Not yet," Sephiroth said, repeating the phrase that echoed over and over inside his head, "Not yet..."

"In another time, you could have been a great ally of Gil-Neithev," Zenos said, stopping directly in front of Sephiroth, "But instead you chose the path of Darkness. Or, in your case, had it chosen _for_ you."

"What do you mean?", Sephiroth said, holding up his sword and preparing for another attack, "Had it chosen for me... what are you talking about?"

"So you don't know what sleeps within you, then," the knight said, "Those voices in your head that have plagued you for--how long has it been now?"

"Thirteen years," Sephiroth said quietly, "It's been thirteen years since the voices started... almost fourteen years, now. Since Mother died..."

"_Mother?_", Zenos said, almost laughing once again, "Ah, so that's what you call Jenova. Sephiroth, you fool."

The knight's Keyblade came smashing down, knocking Sephiroth to the ground in an instant. His nose was bleeding now--red blood, just like anyone else, but with a hint of green occasionally.

"Do you see that... those spots of green in your blood?", Zenos asked, "_That_ is what you have from Jenova. That, and that ridiculous wing. Do you want to know why that is?"

"Because... she was my mother..."

"No, you fool," he said, resting his Keyblade on his shoulder again, "It's because you were somebody's science project--a _failed_ project, might I add. And that Cloud that you talk about so much--he is no different. The two of you were infused with Jenova's cells at a young age."

"No... that can't be..."

"But it is," Zenos said, "If Jenova is your 'mother,' then I suppose you could call the one you hate so much... _'brother.'_"

"No... I never had a brother... or a family..."

"Only because you killed them," Zenos said, "Has the Darkness clouded your memory so much already? You had a family, Sephiroth--you were no different than anyone else. They took care of you, even with your freakish wing and mutated blood... but once you gained the power of Darkness, you killed them just as you would kill anyone else."

"No... I don't remember any of this... you're just trying to--"

"Trying to do what?", Zenos said, "_Trick_ you? But I am a being of Light, Sephiroth--I would never do such a thing. I only intend to tell you who you are--and _what_ you are--before I finally destroy you."

_"The barrier,"_ said the voice in Sephiroth's head, _"Weakened... you can escape... the Dark Passage..."_

Sephiroth began to stand up, but Zenos slammed him back down with his Keyblade once again. The knight took several steps toward his battered opponent, looking down at him through the dark visor of his helmet.

"Though, I suppose I could make a deal," he said, "Release the great Darkness that sleeps within you back into the world to be destroyed, and swear allegiance to Gil-Neithev for all eternity, as I have. Purge yourself of the Darkness and don the armor of the Warriors of Light, along with me... and you will be allowed to live."

"No," Sephiroth said, "Never..."

Zenos' Keyblade swung down again, but this time Sephiroth rolled out of the way. He fired a powerful burst of Darkness at the knight's hand, and his Keyblade slipped, falling to the ground with a heavy thud. Zenos quickly reached down to grab the weapon, but it was too late--a swirling, black portal into the Dark Passage had already opened underneath Sephiroth, and he disappeared into it before the knight had a chance to attack again.

"Another day, then, Sephiroth," Zenos said, "The Darkness grows weaker with each day that passes... the next time we meet, you won't be this lucky."

As the last few wisps of Darkness faded away from the ground, Zenos opened a glowing door and stepped through it, returning to Destiny Islands to report back to Gil-Neithev.


	45. Chapter 40: Morning

**Chapter 40**

Mickey awakened to the sounds of birds and insects in the forest around him, and quickly slipped out of the magical tent. As the front flap closed behind him, the tent began to sparkle once again and then disappeared in a flash--yet another reminder that he needed to find somewhere else to stay soon, because he only had one more tent left.

Fortunately, however, he wouldn't need to go very far--barely a hundred feet away from the place he had camped was a fairly large castle on top of a hill, rising up at least three stories high and poking up above the trees. The King stared at the place for several minutes, noticing that it looked almost... familiar, somehow--though the closest castle he could remember was a bit darker and gloomier-looking, even during the day.

And then, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a dim glow rushing through the forest behind him. He turned to face it, but the glowing creature ignored him and continued to run through the woods, heading up the hill toward the castle and then climbing up one of the walls.

"They're here," he said to himself, following the creature's movements with his eyes--the thing was crawling all over the walls of the castle, apparently searching from an entrance.

Suddenly, whether he had been there before or not no longer seemed important--protecting whoever lived in the castle from that _thing_ was all that mattered.

And Mickey summoned his Keyblade and ran up the hill, preparing for yet another battle.

* * *

Riku's night was far less peaceful than Mickey's. He managed to sleep a little, of course, but it was never long before that rest was interrupted by the presence of a Heartless poking around near him, almost seeming as if it was _sniffing_ him like a cat or dog. He didn't quite understand--the Heartless he was used to never did anything like that. They only attacked, whether it was an attempt to eat your heart or on orders from someone controlling them.

As soon as the little creatures noticed that he was awake again, they would always run away--apparently, these Heartless were terrified of Riku unless he was lying down and barely-conscious. After falling asleep and waking up again nearly ten times, Riku decided that he had slept enough to keep going, and he got up out of the dent in the grass that his body had left behind and began walking once again.

A small group of Heartless that had gathered around him skittered away as he stood up, running off and hiding in the tall grass.

"Wait a second," Riku thought, "Were those Heartless just..."

No, that was ridiculous--_Heartless_ curling up next to someone to sleep? It made even less sense than the other behaviors of the Heartless he had seen so far--did Heartless even _need_ to sleep in the first place?

Riku shook the thought out of his mind before it went too far, and then continued his long journey toward the city in the distance.

* * *

"I was not able to destroy Sephiroth at this time," Zenos said, kneeling in front of Kairi, "But it will not be long. He is injured--and with the Darkness growing weaker with each day..."

"Yes... your next meeting with Sephiroth will be the last," Kairi said, her voice becoming distorted and echoing as she spoke, "The problem, of course, will be finding him a second time... now that he is now aware that we seek to destroy him."

"There are only so many places he can go," said the knight, standing up and once again clutching the wound on his shoulder, "He will gravitate toward places saturated in Darkness--the will of the being within him demands it."

"That is correct," Kairi said, "He will likely try to hide within the World of Darkness. Let him hide--he will grow too weak to fight us before too long."

Kairi's eyes flickered slightly, seeming to show a kind of anger that even Zenos did not recognize. For a second, the knight simply stood and said nothing, waiting for her to calm down. And then, he spoke again.

"And what of Maleficent and her fellow nuisances?", he asked, "Shall I take care of them now, while Sephiroth is still in hiding?"

"Hmm," Kairi said, getting up from her throne and slowly walking across the room, "Maleficent... I had nearly forgotten that she was still alive. I suppose you can take care of her whenever you want... after you've recovered from your battle with Sephiroth."

"Yes, my Queen."

Zenos, looking down toward his wound once again, was apparently disturbed by the sight of the dull glow coming from within, and put his hand over the broken part of his armor for a second. Then he looked away from the hole in his armor, removed his hand from it, and headed off to his room.

* * *

In the early hours of morning, deep below the surface of the ground, Lexaeus was lying on his back on a bench in his gym, lifting an incredibly large weight over and over while listening to the radio.

For once, however, Lexaeus was not alone--Otonashi, the father of Riku, was sitting on another bench a few feet away, also lifting his own set of weights. After hearing that they would need to be as strong as possible in order to fight off the monstrous Shin'an creatures that had appeared, Otonashi had decided that he would spend each morning training with Lexaeus, even if it meant waking up hours before he usually would.

And Lexaeus woke up _extremely_ early, even compared to what Otonashi was used to in his life as a fisherman on the Destiny Islands. It was barely past four o'clock in the morning, but Lexaeus already seemed wide awake--it only took a quick snack (which, for Lexaeus, was a whole grapefruit) and a few stretches to snap him awake, regardless of how much sleep he had the night before.

Otonashi, however, wasn't so lucky. He had actually only lifted his weights a few times, even though he had been in the gym for nearly ten minutes--every time he reached up to grab the bar, he would usually find himself dozing off again, which usually resulted in Lexaeus turning the radio up for a second to jolt him awake again.

A good half-hour later, however, Otonashi had managed to wake up enough to actually get something done. Before long, he and Lexaeus were lifting their weights almost in unison, though occasionally Otonashi would need to take a break for a few seconds--though he was stronger as a Nobody than he had ever been before, he still didn't even come close to having Lexaeus' endurance.

It was during one of Otonashi's breaks that he noticed that Lexaeus had stopped lifting his weights, and was instead reading an old book. He had never expected that Lexaeus would be such a reader--all that Riku had ever said about the large man was that he tried to get him to use the Darkness and scolded him for wasting his potential strength.

Between Riku's descriptions of Lexaeus and his appearance, Otonashi expected him to be nothing more than a dimwitted brute--but, like many first impressions, it couldn't have been further from the truth. Sometimes Lexaeus even seemed to be more intelligent than Vexen or Zexion--both of which could easily be considered geniuses.

And, inevitably, when he thought of Riku's stories about meeting Lexaeus, he remembered that his own _son_ had killed him. He immediately pushed that thought out of his mind--thinking that your own son may have been a murderer all along certainly _wasn't_ the kind of thought he wanted this early in the morning.

Fortunately, another thought quickly replaced it--and it was quickly followed by a question.

"Lexaeus," Otonashi asked, turning toward the larger man's bench, "You were... well... _dead_ once, right?"

"Yes," the large man said, not looking up from his book.

"I've been wondering... what was it like?"

"An interesting question," Lexaeus said, closing his book and setting it aside, "What do _you_ think it would be like, being dead?"

"Well... I think I remember Riku saying that Nobodies just... well," he said, "He said that people like you would just... fade away, into the Darkness... and be gone forever."

"And as you can see," Lexaeus said, "That cannot possibly be true."

"So... if that doesn't really happen," Otonashi continued, "I guess you'd end up in some kind of afterlife, then. A paradise of Light if you were good in life, or eternal punishment in a void of Darkness if you weren't... that's always what I was told when I was young, anyway."

"Hmm. By that, I suppose you mean to say that you don't believe that anymore?"

"I guess not."

Lexaeus sat up on his bench, stretching and yawning quietly before turning to Otonashi and speaking once again.

"A wise decision," he said, "Your former beliefs were those of the same enemy that commands the Shin'an."

"Then..."

Otonashi sat up, putting his weights aside and turning toward Lexaeus as the larger man stretched again and began to stand.

"...what _is_ being dead like?"

"That, my friend," Lexaeus said, standing up, "Is a story for another day."


	46. Chapter 41: Belle

**Chapter 41**

Mickey ran up the hill, reaching the castle just as the glowing creature managed to find an entrance--or, more accurately, _make_ an entrance, as the thing decided to just tear the glass out of one of the windows to get in.

The King stopped in front of the front door, looking up toward the large stained-glass window that was shattered. He waited for a split-second, and then took a few steps back and ran toward--and then _up_--the wall, speeding toward the now-open window.

He hopped up through the window, just barely avoiding the edges of the broken glass, and found himself in a place that appeared to be someone's bedroom. The room was empty, so Mickey ran for the door immediately, following the glowing footsteps left behind by the creature he was trying to catch up with.

Somewhere down the hall was the sound of a woman screaming, followed shortly afterward with the sound of a sword clashing against _something_--it didn't sound like the clang of a sword against metal, but it wasn't quite the sound that a sword striking flesh would make, either.

Mickey followed the sounds of battle and came around the corner of the hallway. About halfway down this hall was a familiar-looking brown-haired woman... _very_ familiar.

It was Belle, one of the Princesses of Heart, and she was holding a long sword (apparently taken out of the hands of one of the suits of armor lined along the wall, as only one was missing its weapon) and attempting to fight off the monster that had invaded her home. The thing was larger than most of those that Mickey had seen before, and very different in appearance--it was somewhat humanoid in shape, but with skeletal, insectoid, and reptillian features as well.

"Belle!", Mickey yelled, "Hold on for just a little longer! I'm coming!"

Belle held up her sword to block the creature's blows, usually managing to avoid the thing's claws by a few inches, but it was obvious that she couldn't fight the thing off much longer. A slash from one of the creature's claws sent her flying into the wall, struggling to stand and only barely keeping her grip on the sword. The thing raised one of its hands high, preparing to finish her off with one more slash...

...and then that hand was swiftly declawed by a swing of Mickey's Keyblade, sending half-broken shards of whatever the thing's body was made of flying across the room. It shrieked, turning toward Mickey for a second and ignoring Belle--which turned out to be quite a mistake, as the princess thrust her sword deep into the creature's side in one last burst of strength before collapsing onto the floor.

The thing's scream echoed throughout the castle, awakening its other residents, who came rushing from all directions. Belle's husband, formerly known as the Beast, was the first to arive, holding a sword of his own, and various servants (most of which were now quite old) came shortly afterward. The glowing creature never knew what hit it--from all sides, it was battered by cleaning equipment, slashed by the prince's sword, and slammed by Mickey's Keyblade.

It was only a matter of seconds before it began to twitch wildly, glow extremely bright, and then dissolve into a strange white powder which fell in a heap on the floor before disappearing entirely.

"Belle!", the prince said, noticing his unconscious wife on the floor, "Is she..."

"No, Belle's fine," Mickey said, "She's just a little tired from fighting that thing off on her own before we got here, that's all."

"Oh... she's not hurt, then. I heard that scream, and... well, I didn't know what to think."

"I know the feeling," Mickey said, lifting up Belle and carrying her to the bed in the room nearby, "Those things'll do that to ya... even I'm not used to fighting them off yet."

"But what _are_ they, monsieur?", one of the servants said, speaking in a French accent, "Surely, they're not any kind of Heartless, but..."

"I don't know what they're called, myself," Mickey said, lying Belle down on the bed softly and then turning to face the others, "But I do know one thing--these monsters are just as dangerous as any Heartless or Nobody ever was... maybe even worse."

* * *

Kairi sat in a small chair in front of a glowing orb of light, staring into it. Zenos was in the room as well, fiddling with his armor and apparently attempting to repair the damaged part where Sephiroth's sword had broken through. After a few failed attempts to mend his armor, the knight stood up and walked up behind Kairi, looking into the light along with her.

"What world is this, my Queen?", he asked, watching as the view of the orb passed through a large pine forest, with a castle in the distance, "It doesn't seem familiar."

"This world is home to one of the Princesses of Heart," Kairi said, "Belle. However... the Shin'an I sent seems to have failed to transform her heart into one of its own..."

"Hmm," Zenos said, watching the orb zoom in on the castle, "Odd. Do you suppose she was able to defeat it before it completed its mission?"

"That would be quite unlikely," Kairi said, "Few of the Princesses have any skill in combat, and in most cases their skill with magic is equally limited. Their hearts are the only thing that separates them from anyone else... hearts of pure Light, untainted by even a speck of Darkness."

"So," the knight continued, "How do you suppose the Shin'an failed in its mission, if this Belle would not have been able to defeat it?"

Kairi gazed into the orb for several minutes, saying nothing all along, until finally her eyes lit up--both as a matter of speech and literally. She turned toward Zenos, directing him to look into the orb once again, and what he saw surprised him.

"A mouse... with a Keyblade?", he said, "And in a world primarily inhabited by humans... very odd indeed."

"Yes," Kairi said, her voice becoming distorted and cracking slightly, "But this is not just any mouse... he is the King that rules over much of the World of Light, either directly or otherwise. And like many in this world, he had abandoned the way of Light, choosing instead a corrupted path of Light intermingling with Darkness..."

Zenos summoned his Keyblade, turning toward Kairi. She stared into the orb for a little longer, then turned away from it as well.

"My Queen," he said, "I will eliminate the mouse for you now, if you wish. Compared to my last opponent, I doubt he will provide much of a challenge, but--"

"Don't bother," Kairi said, her warped voice silencing him immediately, "This mouse King will be a suitable test for the Shin'an formed from the Princesses. Even one of them should be enough to deal with him... and with only his current level of power..."

"He will not survive," Zenos finished, dematerializing his Keyblade. The knight took a few steps toward the door, clutching his wound briefly as he went, and then turned around and spoke once again.

"I will prepare the appropriate Shin'an immediately, my Queen."

* * *

Michiko awakened to find herself face-first in a patch of wet grass, covered in sweat and dried blood and with one hand clenched as if she had been holding onto something immediately before falling asleep. She struggled to bring herself up off the ground, finding that she was sore all over and only managing to kneel. What in the world was _wrong_ with her?

But then she remembered--she hadn't been _sleeping_ at all. She had fallen unconscious after killing Vasilios. She was beginning to remember the night before, now--and immediately she fell over once again and began to cry into the grass, her tears mixing with the dew that already covered it.

Her family was dead--no, not just her family. Everyone she had known as a child was dead, buried under the wreckage of her old hometown. Those that weren't killed by that armored horror were probably killed by _her,_ when the power of her Keyblade caused the ground to shake and buildings to fall apart in an instant.

She looked over toward the junkheap where the town once stood, and the memories of everything she knew of the place immediately came to her mind. The old inn, the grain silo on the edge of town that was home to more cats than grain, that little restaurant on the corner, the abandoned house that she always thought was haunted when she was a kid, even her own home... all of it was gone now.

After nearly an hour of simply sitting in the wet grass and remembering things, Michiko finally managed to stand up, and then she did the only thing that was left to do...

And headed back down the path toward Castle Oblivion.

"This must be what it was like for them," she said to herself, kicking a rock off of the dirt path, "To lose everything you ever knew... family, friends, and even your world itself..."

She stopped for a second, looking back toward the ruins of her old town once again, then turned away and stared down the path, almost as if she would be able to see Castle Oblivion in the distance if she stared hard enough.

"But even then, not everthing's gone."

She kept walking, the soreness slowly fading away from her body. Walking became easier, though still somewhat painful. She had even begun to swing her arms slightly as she walked, though it still wasn't quite as happy and active as her usual movements were.

"No... Even now, I'm still not alone," she said, "Organization XIII is my family now."


	47. Chapter 42: A Moogle?

**Chapter 42**

It was early in the morning at Castle Oblivion, and Roxas woke up on the halfway-dusty bed in his room. For a second he was disoriented--he had gotten so used to sleeping in his house back in Twilight Town that his old room in the castle felt like someone else's room.

Not long after awakening, Roxas immediately went about fixing up his room a bit. It obviously hadn't been used since the last time he had visited--there was almost twelve years' worth of dust everywhere, there was a pizza-shaped stain on the floor in place of the pizza that he remembered dropping there during his last visit (he was sure that either Marluxia or Zexion would clean it up _eventually_), and the dirty socks that had collected around the room were still there--though some of them had sprouted mushrooms and were barely even recognizable as socks anymore.

It took some serious work, but Roxas eventually got his room straightened out. The fungoid socks and other various scum that had collected in the room (especially under the bed--he had to pull his cloak up over his nose just to keep from passing out from _those_ toxic fumes) had been collected and placed in the trash can just outside the room. Most of the dust was now lying in a giant pile outside in the hallway, thanks to the rapid spinning of Keyblades which worked almost like a giant fan.

Zexion _really_ wouldn't like that, of course, but at least it wasn't in his room anymore.

But after hours of dust-relocating, sock-grabbing, nose-covering work, Roxas was finally finished cleaning his room.

Well, mostly, anyway--that stubborn pizza stain was still there, even after a failed attempt to _burn_ it away using the fire powers that one of his Keyblades had.

After brushing the coating of dust and various other crud from his cloak, Roxas walked off down the hallway (carefully stepping around the pile of dust just outside his door) and went off to explore the rest of Castle Oblivion.

* * *

Moogles flew everywhere as the door to Dorga's home was blasted open. The door itself shattered, sending splinters of wood and metal flying all over the room and causing the remaining Moogles to dive for cover. Several of them shrieked and fell over as the door-shrapnel flew into them, but most had managed to get out of the way in time.

As the smoke from the explosion cleared, a tall figure with a pointed hat slowly walked into the room, looking down at the frightened Moogles as he went. Three Moogles rushed into the room and surrounded the wizard, pointing toward him with spears, but a wave of his hands sent the three guards flying into the walls, dropping their spears and falling unconscious onto the floor.

Yen Sid had come to finish what he started.

The old wizard, one of only two surviving Chasers, walked across the floor of the room, not even once paying any attention to the small group of Moogles who were still standing, just watching in shock and trying to keep their friends who had been caught in the explosion alive.

Yen Sid raised his hand again, pointing toward the door on the other end of the room, and then quickly clenched his fist. The door flashed for a second, then collapsed in on itself, what was left of the door falling to the floor in the form of a small block of wood and metal.

The wizard had traveled across half of the hall when suddenly he was met with the point of a spear, seemingly coming out of nowhere from somewhere above him. He looked up, but all he saw was a blur before the spear was pointed at his back, poking up against him slightly. And coming from behind him was a small but surprisingly powerful voice, with the familiar accent of a Moogle that had learned to speak human languages.

"Move those hands and you die," the voice said, "And keep your mouth shut, too, or you'll get a faceful of spear."

Yen Sid laughed quietly. What was this--a mere _Moogle,_ threatening to kill _him?_ Hadn't he seen what happened to the rest?

But this was no ordinary Moogle. Yen Sid spun around and prepared to blast the furry little creature with a simple spell, but the Moogle dashed away from him, spinning and striking the wizard with the butt of his spear from a distance before stopping in the middle of the hallway and holding his spear high in the air.

"Thunder!", Yen Sid yelled, and a bolt of lightning suddenly appeared out of nowhere, emerging from the celing as if it were a cloud and flying down at the Moogle's spear. But instead of making contact, the bolt simply struck the spear and bounced off at an angle, flying into Yen Sid's chest and knocking the old man back a bit.

The fact that his attack was countered so easily by a _Moogle_ seemed to shock him far more than the electricity did.

"What, you thought you were the only one who could use magic?", the Moogle said, lowering his spear, "It's called 'Reflect.' Ever heard of it?"

Yen Sid just growled at the Moogle, clenching his teeth and his fists and shaking with anger.

"Of course, if _that_ name's not familiar," the Moogle continued, "They call it 'Wall' on some worlds... of course, some _other_ worlds have a Wall spell that works completely different, and just--"

"Silence, _Moogle!_", Yen Sid yelled, waving one hand toward the Moogle and taking a step toward him. The room seemed to shake slightly from the wizard's anger, but the Moogle simply stood his ground, keeping his spear held forward.

"What, you got something against Moogles?", he said, giving Yen Sid a slightly funny look. After all, who could possibly hate Moogles? They never hurt anyone who didn't deserve it, they were masters at crafting all kinds of things, and they sure as hell sold their stuff for better prices than those silly elves.

"Your kind are meant to be nothing more than _servants,_" Yen Sid said, waving his hands for emphasis as he spoke, "You are inferior beings, without true free will of your own... doomed to forever serve your masters. Even you, you fool... you are only serving your master, Dorga, by fighting me."

Regardless of anything the wizard said, his white, furry opponent just stood there, still ready for an attack and apparently unphased by the old man's insults. He had never heard anyone with such a negative opinion of Moogles--but it didn't surprise him. Humans were never very good at respecting members of other species--this particular human just took it one species further than most.

"'No free will,' 'serving your master,' blah blah blah... yeah, sure," the Moogle said, "Sounds familiar. Isn't that what _you're_ doing by coming here? Don't deny it--you're just following Gil-Neithev's commands."

"That is different," Yen Sid said, "I _choose_ to obey the laws of Gil-Neithev, and to aid the cause of Light."

"And I _choose_ to keep scum like you away from Dorga," the Moogle said, taking a step toward the old wizard, "I really don't see the difference here."

Yen Sid began to charge up power for another spell, but the Moogle still just stood and watching with his spear held forward. As the energy sparkling around the wizard's hands grew brighter and brighter, the Moogle spoke again.

"Oh yeah, I just remembered," he said, "There is a difference--this is just my _job._ _You_ threw away your whole life to follow Gil-Neithev. Who's got no free will now, huh?"

Yen Sid grew angry, and the room began to shake again--except this time, it was actually _shaking,_ with chunks of rock falling from the celing and holes opening up in the floor. The energy around his hands discharged, and a giant crack formed across the floor, splitting the hallway almost in half. The Moogle just shrugged and hopped back a few feet, completely safe.

"Whoop-dee-doo, you can make a little earthquake," the Moogle said, holding his spear up once again, "Nothing special. Watch _this._"

The Moogle began to spin around, forming strange patterns with his spear and occasionally stopping in a specific pose and holding it for a second before continuing. Yen Sid stood there and watched, apparently having no idea what was going on--didn't the Moogle say he would actually _do_ something? It looked more like he was just dancing.

That all changed when he thrust his spear upward, jabbing the point of the weapon into the celing. A surge of energy ran through the stones of the hallway's celing, and suddenly Yen Sid was smashed in the head with a heavy stone block. The wizard stood up again and began to back away from the Moogle, but more rocks fell and he was knocked backwards, landing on his back in the middle of the hallway.

"How can this be!?", the old wizard said, pulling himself up off the ground and staring at the pile of rubble and the spear-wielding creature on the other side, "You're... you're nothing but a _Moogle!_ You can't... it's _impossible!_"

"A lot of stuff's possible when you're not ruled by some crazy set of laws written by a world-destroying monster," the Moogle said, lowering his spear once again and pointing it at the pile of rubble. The rocks began to float up off of the ground slowly, spinning in midair.

"And guess what? It hasn't even started yet," he continued, "Just making those rocks fall wasn't even the attack."

Yen Sid was flung backward like a rag doll, smashed back and forth across the hall by a barrage of flying stones. He ended up lying in a pile of rubble twenty feet away from the Moogle, his robe torn in several places and his hat bent to one side. Before he could even stand up, the Moogle had already cleared the distance between them, and was standing with his spear pointed at the old wizard's head.

The old wizard, halfway standing and holding onto the ground with one hand, didn't even look up at the Moogle. He only stared at the ground and began to laugh to himself, at first quietly but then becoming louder and louder.

A strange presence rushed forward from Yen Sid, knocking the Moogle's spear aside and pushing its wielder backwards. The wizard slowly stood up, his eyes glowing slightly and his robe blowing about as if a strong wind had suddenly started up in the room. The glow from his eyes slowly began to spread to the rest of his body, and then he spoke once again.

"You're correct, _Moogle,_" he said, "It hasn't even started yet."


	48. Chapter 43: A Strange Mansion

**Chapter 43**

Mickey walked out of Belle's room, leaving the prince and several of his servants behind to watch after the exhausted--and slightly injured--Princess of Heart. The King was headed off to see if he could find some way to get off of the world he had been sent to, but he was interrupted by a shockwave that rippled through the entire castle, nearly knocking him over.

"What's going on!?", shouted the prince from the other end of the hall, "This... it can't be just a normal earthquake..."

And he was right. Shortly after the shockwave hit, the air in the castle seemed to grow colder. Frost collected on the windows, making it nearly impossible to see through them. With every minute that passed, the castle seemed to become colder and colder, even though the sun was still shining in through the frost-covered windows and it looked like couldn't have been very far below room temperature outside.

Downstairs, there was a sound like glass shattering, followed by a heavy thump and a shower of smaller crunches and thumps. Seconds later came the sound of the door creaking open, and then the castle grew even colder. A flower in a nearby vase wilted and died, with the vase itself shattering seconds later from the water inside rapidly freezing.

A strange voice then began to echo in Mickey's mind, though it sounded far away, and slightly muffled, as if something was preventing it from coming through clearly.

_"Shin'an Lumikki,"_ the voice said, _"Destroy the mouse... capture the Princess's heart..."_

The prince suddenly came barreling out of the room with his sword ready, looking around for the source of the voice--but there was nothing there, only the mysterious cold that filled the castle.

"That voice..."

"You heard it too?", Mickey asked, turning back toward him.

"Yes... it was very clear, like it was standing in the room with me," he said, "Belle heard it too, I think--she gasped and cried out in her sleep..."

"Whatever it is, it's after Belle," Mickey said, summoning his Keyblade, "Which means it's probably another one of those monsters..."

"Everyone--be careful."

* * *

Meanwhile, Riku had stopped wandering toward the city on the horizon--he had discovered an old path running through the field, apparently heading straight for the city. For the first time in his journey through the World of Darkness, he actually had some idea where he was going--even if it was "wherever this road goes."

It wasn't longer before he discovered the road's destination. As he came closer and closer to the city that was once far off on the horizon, it became obvious that it was the same city he had visited three times before, during the battles against Organization XIII--the strange, dark, abandoned city known as "The World That Never Was."

As dark as the city was before, it was noticably darker now. The two most notable landmarks of the city--Kingdom Hearts and the Castle That Never Was--were both gone, the light of Kingdom Hearts no longer reflecting off of the Castle's silvery-white walls to illuminate the city a bit more than the neon lights could. The city almost seemed larger than what he remembered--he had only visited the center of the city, so he had never seen most of the rest.

The most unfamiliar buildings of all, however, were the houses on the outskirts of the city. They were hardly the high-tech, futuristic skyscrapers that were seen in the inner-city areas--most of them appeared to be built out of wood or brick, and all of them were in one stage of decay or another.

And, furthest away from the main city (and thus, closest to Riku) was a huge building sitting at the top of a small hill. It seemed to be in better condition than the rest of the old wooden houses--half of the windows still had glass in them, and the steps leading up to the door almost seemed as if they had been repaired recently.

Well, maybe "recently" wasn't the right word--they looked more like they had been repaired within the past ten years, but were a bit overdue for another repair job. Still, they looked at least sturdy enough that someone could walk up them safely--much more than you could say about the steps on other houses, which had almost completely rotted away.

Riku continued down his path toward the city, beginning to walk past the house on the hill, but the next thing he knew he found himself standing in front of the strange old building instead.

"Wait a second," he said to himself, "I wasn't... this house... what the _hell_ just happened here?"

For a second, he felt something brushing up against his shoulder, and he saw a small, pale-skinned hand--probably belonging to a girl, by the looks of it--out of the corner of his eye, holding onto his coat. Riku spun around to see who the girl was, but when he looked behind him there was nobody there.

He looked out over the dark, blue-green fields, halfway expecting to see the mysterious girl that had been behind him just a second ago, but before long he realized that it was pointless to look for her--she was gone. She hadn't even left footprints in the dust on the house's porch, or on the soft dirt of the path leading away from it.

"Wait a second," Riku said to himself, closing his eyes and trying to remember something, "That hand looked... _familiar._ But who..."

His eyes suddenly popped open, and an image of the person he was trying to remember popped into his head.

"Naminé...?"

"But... how...?"

* * *

Yen Sid began to glow brighter and brighter, and his Moogle opponent was forced to raise one arm over his face to keep from being blinded. Several seconds later, the light began to fade from the hallway, leaving only a glowing aura around Yen Sid--who had transformed.

His skin had changed to an odd, gold-like color, and he had grown immensely. His blue robes had transformed, replaced by white ones decorated with strange letters apparently written in gold paint. The strangest part of his transformation, by far, was his arms, however--six of them, three on each side, each growing out at a different angle. Though five of the arms seemed fairly normal, one was a bit different--a large, circular scar surrounded it at its base, making it appear as if that arm had been torn off and sewed back on again later.

A shockwave went through the floor, causing loose bricks on the edge of the already-existing holes to fall down and pushing back the Moogle slightly. The shockwaves kept coming for nearly a full minute afterward, and before long the Moogle jabbed his spear into the floor and held onto it to keep himself from being pushed back anymore.

"I don't need to be standing to attack, y'know," the Moogle said, climbing up onto his spear and away from the floor, several feet above the top of the shockwaves. Yen Sid noticed, but only stood still, apparently waiting for his opponent to attack first.

And he did. The Moogle began to spin around in midair while holding onto his spear, then quickly pulled the spear out of the ground and pointed it toward the six-armed wizard. A small blue fireball shot out from the tip of the spear, stopping immediately in front of Yen Sid and beginning to spin around him in circles. Then the flame suddenly disappeared...

...and then quickly reappeared along with a swarm of similar flames, surrounding Yen Sid and burning him. But the wizard didn't react at all--he just stood still the whole time, waiting until the flames had stopped.

When the strange blue flames had faded, Yen Sid seemed to be almost entirely unharmed--there were several burn marks on his robes, but that was all. Yen Sid held out one hand and fired a massive blast of energy toward the Moogle, sending him flying away across the floor, bouncing over the open pit in the middle of the room, and slamming into the wall.

A few seconds passed, and Yen Sid was about to proceed through the next door, to find Dorga, when suddenly he felt a spear jab into his back. The Moogle had survived.

"You're not gonna get rid of me that easy," the Moogle said, pulling out his spear and preparing for another attack. Yen Sid slammed down at him with two of his arms, but the attack missed, causing a section of the floor to crumble instead. The Moogle held his spear back, as if preparing to throw it toward Yen Sid's head, when suddenly the door behind him opened and Dorga walked in.

"Mog," he said, "You cannot defeat him in his true form. Stop."

"But... Dorga, I..."

"Stop fighting," Dorga said, waving his hand to the Moogle, "Yen Sid will accomplish nothing by killing me now. It is too late."

"What do you mean!?"

"The power of the Chasers is no longer needed," he said, "This war, the battle against Gil-Neithev... it cannot be won by Keyblades alone, for that power is the enemy's as well."

"But..."

"Alone, Riku would be easily crushed," Dorga continued, "With only his own power, he would stand no chance against the Light's forces. But with the power of another along with his own..."

"Silence!", Yen Sid said, turning toward Dorga and raising one of his arms, "I will hear no more of this. Dorga... your death has been delayed long enough."

Dorga shrugged, dropping his staff and letting it shatter on the floor. A strange blue glow fluttered in the air for a second where the staff had fallen, then it faded away. For a second, Mog's spear glowed blue as well.

And then, Yen Sid's hands slammed down. Mog turned away, and there was a heavy _thump_ as the body of Dorga--last of the Chasers who had stood up against Gil-Neithev--fell dead to the ground.


	49. Chapter 44: Shin'an Lumikki

**Chapter 44**

A glowing door opened in the hall leading up to Sora and Kairi's throne room, and out stepped Yen Sid, his robe looking worn-out and his hat still slightly bent. Sora noticed that the old wizard looked like he had been attacked, and ran up to see if he was okay.

"Yen Sid!", he said, "What're you doing all the way out here? And... what happened to your robes and hat?"

The wizard, apparently not realizing his hat was still bent, reached up and attempted to bend it back into its normal position. When the hat's pointy tip just bounced back again, he grumbled to himself quietly, then looked back over in Sora's direction.

"Ah... I have just returned from a battle with those who have abandoned the ways of Light," he said, "A powerful wizard much like myself... and his bodyguard, the one who attacked me."

Just then, Kairi came walking down the stairs, yawning slightly. She had taken a short nap not long before--most likely, the sounds of Yen Sid and Sora talking had awakened her.

"Oh, hello Yen Sid!", she said, sounding like her usual self for once, "I hadn't expected such an important visitor... please, sit down."

Sora wondered exactly where the old man would be able to sit down, but just as the thought crossed his mind, he noticed a large chair, just a bit smaller than the two thrones, that he hadn't remembered seeing before.

_"Well, that's weird,"_ Sora thought, looking over the chair, _"I _know _that chair wasn't there just a minute ago... what's going on here?"_

Yen Sid nodded, walking over to the comfortable-looking chair and sitting down. Shortly afterward, Kairi walked over and sat down on her throne, looking in the wizard's direction. Sora followed slowly behind, still confused by the new chair's sudden appearance.

"So," Kairi asked, "What brings you to Destiny Islands?"

"I have a bit of... important news," he said, "What was once nine is now reduced to one. Those who have betrayed the Light have been eliminated... the power of the Chasers lies only with the Light of Gil-Neithev now."

"Chasers?", Sora asked, "Who're the Chasers?"

"Ancient wizards and metalworkers," Yen Sid answered, "And crafters of Keyblades. Nearly six hundred years ago, there were nine of us--the Archmage Noah, our leader; Dorga, crafter of the Keyblade of Light; Unne, crafter of the Keyblade of Twilight; Zande, crafter of the Keyblade of Darkness; Sarda, Strago, and Matoya, who helped in the crafting of those three Keyblades; Enuo, crafter of a Keyblade that has been lost; and I, crafter of the second Keyblade of Light, which I gave to you to aid in your battles with Organization XIII."

Sora summoned the Star Seeker Keyblade, the one that Yen Sid had given him along with the power to transform. He had suspected that it was somehow linked to the old wizard--the blue blade and yellow stars matched Yen Sid's hat perfectly--but he had never known for sure until now.

"Yes, Sora--that Keyblade was the one I crafted," he said, "And your other blade, the Kingdom Key--that was a creation of Dorga, the last Chaser to live other than myself... he died quite recently."

"What happened to him?", Sora asked, after summoning the Kingdom Key and looking over it, "Was he... the one you mentioned fighting earlier?"

"Yes," Yen Sid answered, "Dorga had turned away from the ways of Light... he became tainted by the Darkness. I suspect he was planning to aid the enemies of Gil-Neithev, if he hadn't already."

Sora looked over the two Keyblades for a few more seconds, noticing that it was still extremely draining to keep two Keyblades active at the same time without first fusing with someone else. Unfortunately, he had long grown out of the magical clothes that provided him with that particular ability, so he had no way to sustain dual-Keyblades for long. After one last look, he dematerialized both of the weapons at once, then let out a sigh of relief.

"It seems I am not the only one who is tired," Yen Sid said, standing up from his seat and motioning for Sora and Kairi to follow, "Come, Sora and Kairi--King and Queen of Destiny Islands, chosen of Gil-Neithev. Let us have some tea to celebrate another victory for the Light."

* * *

Everyone watched as a strange, blue-white glow began to fill the hallway, approaching from the floor immediately below them and drifting up the stairs. Mickey readied his Keyblade, the prince drew his sword, and everyone else just got out of the way, knowing that mops and shovels wouldn't help much against whatever was coming.

As the thing finally reached the top of the stairs, a cold wind blew through the hallway, knocking over the empty suits of armor and various pieces of furniture and shattering the windows, sending shards of ice and broken glass everywhere. Mickey dove out of the way, rolling to avoid the broken windows, and the prince took a step back, ducking into the room where Belle was resting.

The wind died down several seconds later, and the bright glow that had filled the room before was gone as well. In its place was a strange creature, resembling a young woman but with partly-translucent blue skin and tentacles instead of hair. Its eyes resembled those of an insect much more than a human, especially due to the fact that there were six of them there and no other features on its face. The creature's arms still looked relatively normal, but its legs had fused together into a long, scorpion-like stinger. And growing out of the thing's back were two pairs of glowing white wings, resembling those of a wasp, and a fifth, deformed wing below them, which was almost wrapping around the creature's lower body like a dress.

Mickey shivered--and not just from the freezing cold that had filled the room. This creature, whatever it was, somehow felt familiar--as if he had met it before. But he knew that wasn't possible--these horrible things hadn't started showing up until recently. He remembered that his first encounter with them was only several days earlier, when one invaded his home... but he still couldn't shake the feeling that he had seen this particular one before.

He didn't have much time to figure it out, however--before he could think of much of anything else, he was forced to concentrate on the battle that was about to take place. The creature flew across the room at incredible speeds, lashing out at him with its stinger, but he hopped into the air just in time to avoid it.

The prince, however, was not so lucky. He stood his ground as the creature approached, raising his sword to slash it as it came closer, but it suddenly boosted its speed even more and stopped directly behind him. He wasn't able to make a move before the thing's stinger had jabbed him in the stomach, causing a coating of frost to cover his clothes.

The sword fell to the ground, followed soon afterward by its wielder. There was no blood--not yet, anyway; the sudden drop in temperature was enough to freeze his clothes onto his body, preventing any blood from flowing from the wound.

Mickey came running down the hall toward the thing, firing a sphere of Light toward it with his free hand, but the thing simply held up one hand and absorbed the blast. It was enough of a distraction, however--the King had caught up to the Shin'an, slamming his Keyblade into its arm and sending it flying backward several feet. Mickey began to cast a healing spell on the wounded prince, but he was interrupted by a beam of energy from the Shin'an which just barely whizzed by his head.

That beam was shortly followed by a swarm of similar attacks, several of which struck the mouse as he tried to dodge or block them all. The beams that hadn't hit him began to ricochet, bouncing off of the coating of ice that had developed on the walls and reflecting back and forth between them.

Mickey ducked low to the ground, causing the beams to bounce back and forth harmlessly over his head, and quietly mumbled the words for a spell while charging the energy in his Keyblade. A bright greenish glow surrounded the prince, and the frost coating his lower torso--along with the wound below it--faded away.

The Shin'an attacked again, this time sending another cold wind blasting through the hallway and knocking Mickey flying down the hall. It flew after him, slashing at him with its stinger in midair and occasionally lashing out with some of its hair-tentacles as well. Mickey had just managed to regain his balance when he went crashing into the door, knocking it open and nearly tearing it off its hinges as he went.

The creature waited on the other side of the door for Mickey to walk back through, but he never came. It turned around, preparing to head back toward the room where Belle was kept...

...and suddenly a black-and-red blur came rushing out from behind the half-broken doors, spinning through the air with a Keyblade held out and slamming into the thing's back several times, sending it crashing to the floor. Mickey pushed his feet off of the creature's body as the two of them fell, knocking it down once again, and used this extra boost to jump forward, blocking the hallway to keep the thing from getting any further.

Unfortunately, one little mouse was not nearly enough to block an entire hall--especially not a hall as large as the ones in this castle. The blue Shin'an simply flew up over Mickey's head, easily passing by him, and headed toward Belle's room.

Mickey sped down the hall after the thing, attempting to hit its tail or wings with his Keyblade, but it was too fast for him to catch up. Just as the Shin'an had reached the door to Belle's room, Mickey flung his Keyblade like a boomerang, and it spun around in midair, knocking the creature around slightly and preventing it from getting through the door.

Catching the weapon as he finally caught up to the creature, Mickey immediately was on the attack again, striking over and over with his Keyblade and aiming his blows in a way that would force the creature away from the door. After a few seconds of attacks, the thing was finally a safe distance away from Belle's room. Mickey held back his Keyblade, ready to slam it into the creature's midsection, when suddenly the thing generated another blast of cold air.

Mickey was flung backward again, but this time he jabbed his Keyblade into the floor to catch himself before he had gone far. The creature buzzed through the air toward him, but then only shrieked and flew up toward the ceiling rather than attacking.

"What?" Mickey said, confused, "It just--"

He was interrupted by a shower of ice shards, apparently broken off from the walls and ceiling by the creature's scream. Mickey attempted to dodge out of the way, but there were just too many--and the sharpened ice kept raining down, no matter how many times Mickey rolled or jumped out of the way.

Before long, Mickey's clothes were nearly shredded by the ice, and he had suffered a few nasty cuts here and there as well. But the ice finally stopped falling--it was time to attack once again. He couldn't let this _thing_ get to Belle...

Mickey's Keyblade sped through the air toward the Shin'an once again, but the creature sidestepped the attack, screaming and sending another shower of ice toward Mickey. Mickey leaped forward to avoid the attack, but just as he caught the Keyblade on its return flight, he was struck in the head by a massive icicle that was dislodged from the ceiling.

He was slammed to the floor immediately, and heard the sounds of ice scattering across the floor all around him. Some of the fragments of ice hit and stabbed him, but most just bounced off harmlessly.

Either way, it was too late.

Mickey heard his Keyblade drop onto the cold stone floor, metal clanking against ice and rock, and made one struggling attempt to reach for the weapon's handle. But it was too late--his strength was already fading. He was losing consciousness--and fast.

And for just a second, before everything went black, he thought he saw a large, ghostly-looking man in a black hood standing next to him.


	50. Chapter 45: Dive to the Heart

**Chapter 45**

Mickey awakened to find himself surrounded by darkness on all sides, suspended in the air by some unknown force. Gravity seemed to have lost all its power, yet he was unable to float up any higher than the place he had ended up.

He looked around the void, not knowing what to expect. Was he alive or dead? If he was alive, was he even conscious--or was this all just some strange dream?

Just then, a powerful wind began to blow, swirling around the King and pulling him along. He tried to fight the wind at first, suspecting it to be another attack from the creature he had just been fighting, but then he noticed that it wasn't the same. The winds sent forth by the glowing blue monster were cold and came at incredible speeds; this seemed gentler somehow, even though it was pushing him just as hard.

Before he had the time to think about the strange wind, however, he felt gravity take hold once again, pulling him down toward a strange platform floating in the darkness. He looked at the platform as he struggled to stand up, noticing that it seemed to be made of stained glass--depicting an image of Belle and the Beast, with a third person standing with his back turned against the opposite wall, too far away to be identified.

"Hey, you!", a strange voice called out, "Mouse-dude! Hurry up and get yo' ass over here!"

Mickey looked around, confused, trying to figure out where this odd voice was coming from. It sounded familiar, but the memories were too far back for him to pinpoint exactly where he recognized the voice from. He took a step forward, wondering where exactly this voice was telling him to _"get his ass over"_ to.

"C'mon, man!", the voice said, this time a bit louder, "I ain't got forever, y'know! Well, er, maybe I kinda _do_ have forever, but... hurry up already, dammit!"

Mickey turned around in his search for the mysterious voice, noticing for the first time a stairway at the other end of the platform that seemed to be made of blue-gray metal slabs suspended in the air, each one slightly higher than the previous one. The mouse slowly approached the stairs, not sure whether he should climb them or not, when the voice spoke once again.

"Whaddya waitin' for, man?", the voice said, apparently growing impatient, "I come all the way out here just ta save yo' ass from that Shin'an mofo, and you can't even get up some damn _stairs!?_"

"Who... who are you?", Mickey asked, yelling in the direction of the stairs.

"What, you don't recognize me?", the voice said, now noticably coming from somewhere beyond the stairs, "Look, you bailed me outta some trouble back when I ended up on that Land o' Dragons place--you don't remember findin' me and fixin' my ship?"

Mickey began to walk up the stairs. He was about to say something, but before he could even get one word out he was interrupted.

"Man, I shoulda known you wouldn't know who the hell I was," the voice said, sounding a bit disappointed, "'Specially after you didn't even recognize me back there at the castle ten years ago and all."

The King continued his approach up the long flight of stairs, and was once again about to say something before he was interrupted.

"Y'know, you weren't exactly that nice to me that last time," the voice said, "Just jumpin' in there, not even recognizin' my big ol' hairy mug and just goin' off and smackin' me with that Keyblade..."

"You betta be glad I'm on your side this time," the voice continued, not even giving Mickey a chance to say anything this time, "Y'know, if I didn't save yo' ass back there, you'd be _dead_ right about now."

At just that moment, Mickey finally climbed up over the last of the floating stairs, reaching yet another stained-glass platform. This one was painted with a very different picture from the other--a group picture of Organization XIII, but with everyone but Vexen, Lexaeus, Zexion, and Roxas blurred out slightly, and Xemnas nowhere to be seen.

And standing at the opposite end of the platform was the same hooded man that Mickey had seen for a second before, immediately before he had blacked out. This time, he didn't appear as a ghostly image, but as something just as solid as everything else around him.

"You... that's an Organization XIII cloak!", Mickey said, holding out his hand and summoning his Keyblade. He began to run toward the cloaked man, but when he slashed toward him, the Keyblade simply passed through harmlessly.

"Man, you oughta know better," he said, "Kinda hard to kill somebody who's _already dead._"

"But if you're _dead,_ how--"

"Got some time off for good behavior," he said, laughing a little before speaking once again. "Actually, no, that ain't it--I just heard somebody I knew was about ta get an ass-whoopin' from the Shin'an, and thought I'd betta stop that from happenin'. Nothin' written in stone, y'know."

"But... even if I'm still alive, what I can I do _here?_"

The hooded man crossed his arms and seemed to growl slightly, sounding a bit irritated. He then uncrossed his arms again and took a few quick steps toward Mickey, causing the mouse to back away a little.

"You ain't _gone_ anywhere! This stuff's all goin' on in that big ol' round head of yours," he said, "Ain't that Sora kid ever told you 'bout that thing where he woke up in some weird-ass place with stained glass floors? This's _that!_"

"You mean... but," Mickey said, seeming a bit confused. "Wait a second... Sora said he got his Keyblade there, but... I already--"

"Yeah, yeah, you already _got_ yo' Keyblade," the man interrupted, "Problem is, since tha guy who made it's been dead so long, nobody eva' bothered to _activate_ the damn thing. You been fightin' with that thing all this time, and didn't even notice?"

"...Activated...?"

"Yeah, _activated,_ that's what I just said! Y'know how Sora's Keyblade always changed when he went to a new world?"

"Of course," Mickey said, "He's always been able to do that, as long as I've known--"

"That's 'cuz the guy who made _his_ was still alive back then!", he interrupted, "Before he sent that thing off to go find the kid, he activated its full power. But yours ain't had that done yet, so it's still stuck the way it is! But don't worry, I'm gonna fix that."

The man reached up and lifted his hood away from his head, slowly revealing his face. His eyes were purplish-blue in color, and his hair was black and hung back in a long mass of some sort of braids or dreadlocks. The most noticable feature by far, however, was his thick sideburns, which traveled all the way from his ears to the middle of his cheeks.

"You're... Xaldin?!"

"Who'd you expect, the Easter Bunny?", Xaldin said, taking another step toward Mickey, "Now, gimme that key-thing of yours for a second. You're gonna need a little boost if you're gonna kick that Shin'an's ass, y'know?"

Xaldin reached out and grabbed Mickey's Keyblade, causing a light purplish-blue aura to surround him and slowly pour itself into the weapon. The elf's features began to fade away slightly, becoming ghostly and transparent once again, as he had appeared before Mickey lost consciousness.

Mickey noticed that the world around them was beginning to fade as well--he was regaining consciousness. Just before he had awakened once again, he thought he heard Xaldin's voice.

"Y'know, I really wouldn't step in like this if it was just you who was gonna get it," he said, "But I ain't gonna just stand by and watch Belle and the Beast get slaughtered by those damn Shin'an."

Everything had faded to black--it would only be seconds longer before the dream would end entirely, and Mickey would be back in the castle's frozen halls. And Xaldin spoke one last time.

"So, guess it's time for you to be exterminatin' some bugs."

* * *

**Author's Note:** For an explanation of Xaldin's voice here compared to his voice in the games, see my sister's story "The Xaldin Tales" (the chapter that explains it should be up _sometime_ soon...)

Essentially, his in-game voice was a fake ("acting like an emotionless freak") that he used to help him piss off the Beast so he could get out of his mission (by failing it!) without having to turn the Beast into a Heartless.


	51. Chapter 46: Guardian Tornado

**Chapter 46**

Riku stood in front of the old mansion, wondering what could be inside. Probably just Heartless, knowing what the rest of the World of Darkness had been like--strange, small Heartless, which would apparently rather cuddle up to him and sleep than attack.

Finally, after standing there for at least half an hour, Riku finally reached out and grabbed the old metal handles attached to the door. They were covered in rust, scraping up against Riku's hands, but apparently the door wasn't completely broken yet. After pulling on them a little, he was able to open the old double-doors that led into the mansion, and they swung open, creaking very loudly.

He stepped through the doors, slowly walking into the mansion and looking around as he went. He heard someone snap their fingers, and the doors suddenly slammed shut behind him.

Riku froze, and instinctively summoned his Keyblade, illuminating the area around him with a flash of blue and purple energy.

There _was_ someone else in the mansion.

* * *

Mickey slowly began to awaken, still lying on the cold, ice-coated floor of the castle. For a second, he heard Xaldin's voice echo in his head, repeating his last words before the strange black void and stained-glass platforms had vanished. And then, Xaldin's voice spoke up again.

"You've only been outta it for about a second, y'know," he said, "So nothin' else has happened yet. You betta hurry, though--that thing's not gonna waste time sittin' around in front o' Belle's door for long!"

Stirred awake by Xaldin's warning, Mickey hopped to his feet and summoned his Keyblade once again. This time, the weapon was surrounded by a blue-purple aura before finally appearing--and when it _did_ appear, it looked very different than before.

The Keyblade, which once looked exactly like Sora's Kingdom Key but with inverted colors, had transformed. Its handle was still very similar, but the bar in the middle was dark blue with gold bands at the points where it connected to the hand-guards. The blade itself had shifted shape to resemble one of Xaldin's spears, sharp on the end and with a dragon-like design. There were still two small key prongs on the other side, but they were vastly overshadowed by the large spike behind them and the spear point that they were attached to. And, finally, the keychain had become blue in color and shifted shape to resemble the symbol of Organization XIII--and of all Nobodies.

Mickey ran down the hall, carrying his new Keyblade, and felt a new strength flowing through him--the true power of his Keyblade, finally unleashed after all these years. The Shin'an spun around and swung its tail-blade forward as he came close, but the King jumped high into the air above it and then came crashing down, blade-first, onto the thing's back.

The Shin'an screamed, causing Mickey to be knocked off and a shower of ice to rain down all around. He held up his Keyblade, spinning it around at high speeds, and the ice shards were ground into a fine powder and deflected before they could make contact with him. The translucent-blue monster fired beams of Light toward him, but he leaped up between the beams and thrust the spear-point of his Keyblade into the creature's chest. The thing's exoskeleton split open at that point, releasing a spray of glowing slime and causing it to scream once again. By this time, however, the ice had already fallen from the walls and ceiling--there was no more left for the creature's shrieks to knock loose.

Mickey slashed and stabbed at the creature over and over, severing a few of the tentacles that made up its "hair" and sending it flying backward down the hall. Before the thing was able to get up again, he rushed along the frozen floor after it, leaving streams of water behind as he went--Mickey was now moving so quickly across the floor that the sheet of ice melted beneath him from the heat and friction.

And, at the other end of the hall, the prince was beginning to regain consciousness. He looked up at the battle that was taking place, with his eyes only half open, and saw something he recognized--a very familiar-looking spear--in between the flashes of black, red, and blue.

"...Xaldin...?", he whispered, staring out across the hall, "But... you were... Sora... urggh..."

The prince's head slipped back down to the floor, and he went unconscious once again.

* * *

Riku slowly and carefully made his way into the mansion, not sure what--or _who_--he would encounter there. His Keyblade was held out in front of him, ready to strike in case a Heartless or some other threat emerged. The floor creaked under his feet occasionally, and then suddenly he heard the sound of his feet brushing against carpet rather than plain wood.

There was another sound of fingers snapping, and a dim, orange-colored light flicked on. Riku could now see where he was going--he was standing in what appeared to be someone's living room, with a red carpet on the floor and several large couches and other furniture sitting around in different places.

On a table in the middle of the room (which seemed to have been polished recently--rather odd for such an old house!) was a stack of magazines, mostly written in a language that Riku didn't recognize. On the other end of the table was a pile of paper, apparently letters or notes of some kind. A heavy paperweight, in the shape of a Heartless symbol, was on top of them, making sure nothing knocked them off of the table. There was also a plate, covered in what appeared to be cookie crumbs, with a tiny Heartless sitting next to it and munching on them.

And then, there were several heavy footsteps, and the familiar shape of a tall, dark-skinned, silver-haired man appeared from the door on the opposite side of the room.

"Xehanort!?", Riku said, barely able to speak from the shock of seeing someone who he was _sure_ was dead standing in front of him, "But... that's impossible!"

On the other side of the room, Xehanort only crossed his arms and smiled.

* * *

There was a loud crack as the Shin'an smashed into one of the wooden doors of the castle, smashing through wood and ice alike and knocking what was left of the door off of its hinges. Mickey came flying down after it not long afterward, thrusting his spear toward it, but the thing slid to the side slightly and the spear jabbed into the floor instead.

Mrs. Potts, Lumiere, and several other of the prince's servants--now in their original forms rather than those of living furniture--huddled in the corner of the room out of fear, staying as far away from the monstrous Shin'an as they could. When the thing leaped up and was knocked in their direction by another swing from Mickey's new-and-improved Keyblade, most of them fainted.

Fortunately, the creature ignored them, instead choosing to fly back toward Mickey and send a barrage of icicles from the ceiling of the room flying toward him. The King was hit, but he just jumped back up again as if the attack hadn't even scratched him, spinning his spear-like Keyblade and striking the monster over and over. The thing was thrown around the room, finally landing on an old wooden table in the center and breaking it.

It recovered once again, flying toward the room's exit, but before it was able to escape, Mickey came crashing down toward it once again, and with one powerful swing of his Keyblade, the creature's tail was severed from the rest of its body.

The tail twitched and writhed on the ground for several seconds, spewing glowing slime everywhere, before finally it glowed brightly and then dissolved away into white dust.

The rest of the creature stumbled in midair, no longer able to fly effectively without its tail balancing it out. It tried to head back toward Belle's room, but it crashed into the walls and floor every time it made another attempt to fly. It began crawling along the ground instead, pulling itself across the frozen floor with its arms, but before it got very far, Mickey was on the attack once again.

A blurry, half-transparent image of Xaldin--with one spear in hand--flashed over the small King for a second, making him appear far larger than he actually was. Then Mickey brought his Keyblade down, splitting the Shin'an cleanly in two, and the image faded. The blue-purple aura surrounded Mickey's Keyblade once again for a second, and then was absorbed into the weapon, causing it to flash and return to its usual form.

And, as Mickey walked past the defeated Shin'an to check on Belle and the prince, the two halves of its body began to glow brightly--looking like the surface of the sun for a second--before quickly dimming again and collapsing into two identical piles of white dust.


	52. Chapter 47: Empty Rooms

**Author's Note:** And now, What Comes After is officially longer than The Thoughts of Zexion (the prologues and ToZ's preview-thingie don't count)... and it's not even finished yet!

* * *

**Chapter 47**

Roxas had wandered all throughout the castle, peeking into rooms here and there. Most of them weren't much different than how he remembered them--the junk lying around in them had undergone ten years or so of decomposition, but other than that, it was about the same.

Xigbar's old room was almost in even worse shape than his was--there were old, half-rotting clothes piled on the back of a chair, a few old, rusty guns in a rack on the wall, dust everywhere, empty cigarette packs and beer bottles littering the floor, and a spare eyepatch hung carefully on one of the bedposts in case his original one was ever damaged. Just barely visible from underneath the bed was Xigbar's stash of porno magazines--now probably worthless, as they had apparently become the home of a family of cockroaches and were riddled with holes where the roaches had eaten bits of the paper away.

Xaldin's room wasn't much better. The clothes were spread out all over instead of all piled neatly on a chair, but the rest of the room wasn't _quite_ as nasty--but still, it obviously had not been cleaned in a long time. The dark greenish carpet of the room was barely visible through the coating of dust, and hanging on the wall was Xaldin's old training spear--from his days spent in the Land of Dragons. The spear now looked even more ancient than it already was, covered in dust and old spiderwebs.

Roxas skipped the rooms belonging to Vexen, Lexaeus, and Zexion--he was afraid that he might wake them up, as it was still pretty early in the morning. Lexaeus was usually awake early, but he wasn't sure if either of the other two would still be in their rooms or not--so he just walked on by when he came to those rooms.

Saix's room was one that he had never seen during his time at Castle Oblivion, and for good reason--Saix was _crazy._ If he went in there while Saix was around, he might be walking into a berserk elf sitting in his room with nothing better to do than strangle the first kid who showed up--or worse, he might walk in on Saix and Larxene. Roxas shuddered at the thought of it.

But now, Saix had been dead for years--meaning that his room was probably a little safer to wander into now. Roxas peeked in and looked around, finding the room surprisingly clean. There were no clothes all over the floor, though there was quite a bit of dust and a few suspicious stains on the bed and in various places on the carpet. There were also some scratches on the walls resembling clawmarks--he thought it was probably better _not_ to guess how those had gotten there.

Axel's room, unlike the rooms of the older members, was a familiar-looking one. There was a coating of dust over everything, just like in all of the other rooms, but other than that, it looked just like how he had remembered it. On one of the walls was a framed picture of a volcano erupting, which Naminé had painted for him during her stay in the castle. The heater in the corner of the room, always set to around eighty degrees rather than the usual temperature, was still there, but it had become so clogged with dust that it no longer worked. There were dirty socks all over the place--though, unlike Roxas, Axel was a bit better about putting away the _rest_ of his clothes. It was just those elusive socks that always seemed to end up on the floor, regardless of anything else.

Demyx's room--probably the single room in the castle that had been cleaned less often than Roxas' own room was. The room had at least a quarter-inch more dust on its floor than the rest, probably thanks to Demyx's promise that he would clean his own room rather than having Zexion, the janitor, do it for him. Socks and clothes were everywhere, most notably a pair of underwear that had been stuck ontop of a lamp next to the bed. The room's walls were painted blue, with scenes of fish and seaweed added on here and there. Demyx and Naminé had worked together to decorate the room, though they never did have a chance to finish before Naminé was taken away from the castle.

Larxene's room... now _that_ would have been a scary place, if Larxene were still around. Roxas was only just barely able to convince himself to enter the room--Larxene was even scarier than Saix, mostly thanks to the fact that, while Saix would usually just ignore him, Larxene would actually go after him and attempt to "play" with him. The scary thing, of course, was in exactly what Larxene's definition of "playing" with someone was--from what he had heard, it usually involved a bit of stabbing and a whole lot of insults. Fortunately, Axel or someone else would usually save him before Larxene had the chance to do much of anything.

Her room, however, wasn't particularly scary. As long as he avoided the closet in the back, where she kept her collection of torture devices, the room didn't look much different than any other. Well, maybe it did--the walls had been painted with a mixture of pink, red, and black, with strange swirls and patterns added on in other colors here and there. Unlike Saix's room, there were no visible stains on the bed or carpet, but Roxas still couldn't bring himself to sit down on the bed (regardless of how soft it looked.)

Marluxia's room, oddly, seemed to still be inhabited. The layer of dust was gone, and the bed's sheets were messed around a little, like someone had just gotten out of them not too long ago. The flowery decorations that Marluxia had always liked had been partly left in place and partly removed, with those that were taken down being replaced by pictures of several green-haired people and an odd symbol that he didn't recognize.

Luxord's room, also, seemed to have been used recently. He figured that it must have been the silver-haired man, Otonashi, who had been there when he first arrived the day before--he couldn't imagine someone like him staying in Marluxia's flowery room, anyway, so Luxord's had to be it.

And once Roxas had finally finished his quick tour of the castle, he headed back down toward Vexen's lab to wait for everyone else to wake up... so he could say goodbye to them once again before he set off to re-open the Door to Darkness, as Naminé had asked.

* * *

Riku stood, frozen by shock, as the man that he spent nearly two full years fighting--who he was _sure_ was long dead--stood just a room's-length away from him with his arms crossed, smiling.

"Surprised?", Xehanort asked, "You should be. I was a bit surprised I survived this long, myself."

"But you... you're supposed to be..."

"Dead? But of course," he answered, "I should have been dead long ago. None of my many enemies, over all the years I have lived, ever expected me to live. There were points when even _I_ thought I would die... yet I live on, even now... over eight hundred and forty years after my birth."

Xehanort floated up off of the ground, traveling across the floor and stopping directly next to Riku. He began to lift his Keyblade to strike, but the dark-skinned man motioned for him to stop.

"You have no reason to attack me," Xehanort said, grabbing onto Riku's weapon and pushing it away from him, "You are not my enemy, Riku... not now."

"Oh no, I'm not falling for _that_ again," Riku said, jumping back away from him, "You're just trying to possess me again, to control my every move... I should have known."

"Believe me, Riku," Xehanort said, "I have no interest in possessing little boys anymore. My own strength is quite enough."

"That's what you say _now,_" Riku continued, "But I bet you'll be back to your old tricks just as soon as I let my guard down. I'll never let _that_ happen again."

"Keep your Keyblade ready if you want," Xehanort said, taking a few steps away from Riku, "I have no reason to attack you, so long as you do not attack me. Like I said, you are not my enemy."

"I still don't see what you mean," Riku said, "You were my enemy the last time we met. What's with the sudden change of heart?"

"Ah," Xehanort said, smiling again, "I thought you'd never ask. You see, I am not exactly the same person I was the last time we met."

"You don't seem any different to me," Riku said, holding his Keyblade out in front of him. That wasn't the whole truth, actually--Xehanort _did_ seem a bit different now. For one thing, he hadn't yet said the word "Darkness" even once, and his Guardian Heartless, which usually followed behind him everywhere he went, was nowhere to be seen.

"Sit down," he said, motioning toward one of the empty couches as he walked by it, "I have quite a story to tell you, Riku. A story of my past... your past... and our future."

Riku stood still for a second, but when Xehanort sat down on the other couch and got into a comfortable position, he went ahead and sat down as well--though he still kept his Keyblade ready, just in case.

Just then, however, Riku jumped up from his seat once again. Heartless had begun to enter the room from every hole in the floors and walls, as well as from the other rooms of the house. He gasped, turning toward Xehanort and readying his Keyblade.

"I knew it! You were just getting me to sit down and get _eaten!_"

"No, you fool," Xehanort said, standing up and teleporting over toward Riku, "They are no threat to you. Sit back down and listen to my story."

Riku watched the Heartless carefully for a minute, still holding up his Keyblade and ready to strike, but eventually he decided that it might be better to just go ahead and sit down. After all, the other Heartless he had seen here so far didn't seem like much of a threat--would these be any different?

Immediately after he--and Xehanort--sat back down, the tiny Heartless began to climb up onto the two couches, piling on all over and occasionally attempting to crawl onto Riku's lap. He shoved them away, causing them to squeak at him in annoyance before trying to get back on again. Eventually, after pushing the small Heartless off of his lap three more times, Riku finally just gave up and let the little critter stay where it was.

"See? He likes you," Xehanort said, while smiling slightly and petting a small Heartless of his own, "The little ones like sitting on people's laps, as you can see. Like I said, these Heartless are no threat to you--they are not the mindless insects that you are used to. In this world, saturated in Darkness, they have developed intelligence..."

He pointed over to a stairwell, leading up to the next floor of the mansion. There, several small Heartless seemed to be _playing_--something that the larger varieties, which Riku had seen before, _never_ did. Occasionally another one would come sliding down the bannister, almost in the same way a young child would do--or _try_ to do--if given the chance.

"Now," Xehanort said, lifting the Heartless-symbol paperweight and grabbing several of the letters beneath it, "Where were we?"

"Your story," Riku said, "You wanted to tell me something about your past, and about the future."

"Yes," the dark-skinned man answered, "A long story, if I were to tell the whole thing. Let's just begin with one simple fact--the monster that now threatens all of existence, Gil-Neithev, was the same being that I once defeated, with the help of several others from my tribe."

"Yeah, that's what Dorga told me," Riku said, looking down at the small Heartless that now appeared to be asleep on his lap, "You sealed away Gil-Neithev a long time ago... but now he's out again. Right?"

"Correct," Xehanort said, "And since you already know that, I suppose I can skip ahead to the more recent past. I do not remember everything clearly, even now, but..."

He shifted slightly in the chair, putting down the letters on the table once again, and then picked up the Heartless-symbol paperweight, holding it up toward Riku.

"...I do remember one thing," he said, "I remember when I lost my mind... my memory had been erased from the aftermath of the war with Gil-Neithev, and I had been taken in by a team of scientists on another world. They attempted to return my memories... but they failed. Miserably."

"Scientists, huh... you mean Ansem the Wise and his apprentices?"

"Of course," he answered, "Only the greatest scientists of their world, or perhaps of _any_ world--at least at that time. They tried to return my memory, but all that truly returned was my affinity for Darkness... and without any knowledge of my past... nothing prevented this affinity from growing into an obsession. That, and the increasingly-more-dangerous experiments... drove me insane. I then began experimenting further... on _myself._ I removed my own heart... became a being of heart alone, saturated in Darkness--a Heartless."

"And after that, you tried to destroy everything," Riku said, "Sending Heartless everywhere, possessing me and controlling me to fight against my own best friend..."

"I was _insane,_ Riku," he said, "My ability to distinguish between right and wrong was shattered. In my insanity, I believed myself to be _saving_ the worlds, not ruining them--that strange place that existed before the Door to Darkness, composed of what was left when so many worlds were devoured by the Heartless... I believed _that_ to be the true form of the World of Light, what it had been before being splintered by Gil-Neithev's power."

"And then?"

"That--at the last battle with Sora--is where my memory stops being clear," Xehanort said, standing up, "Or, as I should say, Naminé's reconstruction of my memory."

"Wait... _she's_ part of this, too?", Riku asked, also standing, "But... she combined with Kairi again... and--wait a second. There's still one more thing you haven't told me."

"And what would that be?"

"How did you survive after Ansem's machine overloaded?", Riku asked, "Every last bit of your existence was purged from my body. You were _gone._ I couldn't even open the Dark Passage anymore--every last shred of you was gone."

"Gone from _you,_ that is," Xehanort said, "You are correct, I was removed from your body at that point. But, do you honestly believe an explosion of hearts to destroy a being composed of nothing _but_ a heart?"

"You mean..."

"Yes, Riku--that explosion hardly _killed_ me," he continued, "In fact, I was closer to death _before_ that blast than I was afterward. I was crippled even then, of course--it seems that you and Sora came even closer to destroying me than even Gil-Neithev had."

"But I recovered from that, and managed to overcome it--just as I have overcome each other hurdle in my life. And you, Riku--you are no different. We both share a will to live greater than any other, sleeping somewhere deep within us, passed on by the great tribe we both descend from... the ancients of the World of Darkness."


	53. Chapter 48: Void

**Chapter 48**

Mog drifted in the void.

Dorga's death had finally broken the last of the magical seals that held the headquarters of the Chasers together--and in an instant, the entire place had collapsed, cracking apart at the seams and shattering into millions of pieces. Lava from deep beneath the surface of the planet erupted forth from the cracks in the floor, freed when the place's foundations were suddenly destroyed. Explosions of magical energy--all that which was sealed in the ancient room where the Keyblades were forged--rattled what was left of the walls. And then everything just vanished, replaced by a blank gray void.

The World of Nothingness. Mog had heard of it before--it was the strange dimension which the Dark Passage ran through, connecting to each of the other three Worlds like a network of pipes. He had heard many stories attempting to explain its origin, but one particular story always stuck with him more than the rest--and that story was what was running through his mind as he floated through the gray void, not even sure which direction he was going.

The World of Nothingness was a true World once, like those of Darkness, Light, and Twilight. It was the world where those who didn't quite belong in any of the others existed--those who were neutral to the forces that swirled and mixed within the heart. There were humans, those of tribes other than the three ancient ones which populated the three other Worlds long ago. There were Moogles, coming in all shapes and sizes, from countless subspecies. There were other creatures--strange creatures, many of which no longer live today.

And then, something happened. The world was utterly destroyed, leaving only the void in its place. Its inhabitants were flung through the newly-formed Dark Passage, being forced apart from one another and spread throughout the remaining Worlds. None remembered what exactly had happened, or why--only that their home was gone forever, and the worlds they had been flung to were their homes now.

This was what he was always told growing up. It explained how Moogles existed in all three of the Worlds, even before the discovery of the Dark Passage or of space travel. It explained the presence of humans who had no relation to the three ancient tribes--the people of Radiant Garden, and of Twilight Town, and many other places throughout the worlds.

Mog wasn't sure if it was true. No one could know for sure--it was an event lost to history, so far back that even the most ancient sages wouldn't have seen it. Even Dorga and Unne--the two oldest people he knew--hadn't the slightest idea as to whether it was true or not. But, either way, it was all he had left to hold onto in this strange, gray world. As the ancient people of this world had been forced into the other worlds, he had been forced into what was left of theirs.

So he kept the story in his mind, and rather than simply allowing his body to drift in the nothingness, Mog slowly forced himself to stand once again.

* * *

Roxas waited in Vexen's lab, sitting in the old scientist's chair in front of the computer that held all the information that Organization XIII had collected over all its years. After sitting for nearly an hour, he started to get impatient--it was almost noon! Why hadn't anyone gone to the lab yet?

So, to pass the time, he began typing away at the computer, opening up the information files on the various members of the group--both past and present. He noticed that Xemnas' file was suspiciously blank, missing such vital details as "favorite food," "age when becoming a Nobody," and "age at death." The files on the other members were quite a bit more interesting--Xigbar's file contained a detailed list of each and every scar on his body (there were more than a hundred of them in all); Xaldin's contained a diagram of exactly how he tied his "draids," as he often called his not-quite-dreadlocks, but not-quite-braids-either hairstyle; and Vexen's file was apparently locked with a password to prevent anyone but himself from seeing anything that might embarrass him.

Before he had a chance to move on to Lexaeus' file, he felt a strange presence ripple through the entire building--one that he had felt before. Shortly afterward came the sound of metallic footsteps in the hallway, coming up from the caves beneath the castle and then stepping out onto the white floor of Castle Oblivion's lowest floor.

"No," he said quietly, "Not _her..._ not now..."

Roxas drew his Keyblades, with the flames from one of the weapons twisting oddly in midair, apparently trying to keep away from the highly-flammable papers on Vexen's table. But before he could make another move, there was a bright light from the hallway outside of the lab, and suddenly the presence was gone.

Not long afterward, Lexaeus and Otonashi came rushing into the room to see what was going on. The two of them had obviously felt the knight's presence as well--she had returned to life, hardly a day after she was killed. And what was worse, she seemed more powerful now than she was before.

"Roxas," Lexaeus said, "You're unharmed... good. We made it here as soon as we could..."

"It's okay," Roxas said, putting his Keyblades back into their straps, "Sofia's gone already... she left before I had a chance to even see her in the hallways."

"Sofia?", Lexaeus asked, "So you've met with them before...? Hmm..."

"Yeah... well, not _them,_ just _her._ She attacked me in Twilight Town," he answered, "I thought I had killed her... no, I _knew_ I had killed her. I watched my Keyblades cut through the armor on her neck... and... the blood..."

"Yet, somehow, she still lives... very strange," Lexaeus said, walking over past Roxas and sitting down in front of the computer. He typed some information into the computer after exiting the Organization XIII data file, apparently adding in files on the three Warriors of Light that had appeared from beneath the castle.

"So Sofia is the female knight's name... that leaves two more," Lexaeus said, "And quite a bit of missing information to fill in..."

"Yeah... pretty much all I know is that they're with Gil-Neithev somehow," Roxas said, looking over Lexaeus' shoulder at the screen, "And when they die... there's this glow around their body for a minute, and then it just vanishes. Not like the Shin'an--they leave this white dust behind. With Sofia, there wasn't any of that... just vanished into thin air."

Roxas and Otonashi just watched as Lexaeus' enormous hands typed everything into the computer, his fingers moving with a kind of blinding speed that nobody would have ever expected from Lexaeus.

* * *

Maleficent looked out over her homeworld from one of the high balconies of the Castle That Never Was, now relocated so that it floated above the ground at the site where her old castle once was. It had hardly taken a day for her minions to conquer the world--with the three fairies who had once stood against her still missing, there was hardly any opposition. Finding Princess Aurora lying dead from a stab wound was a bit of a disappointment, as it meant that one of the Princesses of Hearts was unavailable, but overall, her conquest of the world had been more successful than anyone could have expected.

The world still _looked_ mostly the same, but if you took a closer look into one of the cities, it was obvious that it was now a world enslaved--the townsfolk now worked alongside their former masters, both serving under those who had joined with Maleficent. They were paid only in bread and water--just enough to keep them standing--and when one of the weaker ones died, Maleficent would simply reanimate them as one of the undead and put them to work once again.

Some toiled away for hours forging weapons and armor for Maleficent's followers--Pete now wore a suit of heavy armor and a helmet (specially fitted with holes in the right places for his ears to stick out) rather than his usual clothing, and he wielded a massive spiked mace. For the first time in his life, Pete actually looked somewhat intimidating.

Prince John, the humanoid lion who Maleficent had allied with, was now in charge of keeping the workers working--he was already quite familiar with overworking and underpaying his subjects, so it was a perfect fit. He was particularly fond of overseeing jewelers and tailors, as his old robes were beginning to get dirty and Pete had a nasty habit of stealing his gold.

And, as she watched all this from her castle in the sky, Maleficent began to laugh--not a happy laugh, but a kind of deranged cackle that seemed to echo across the whole world from high above.


	54. Chapter 49: Whispers in the Darkness

**Chapter 49**

About half an hour after Lexaeus and Otonashi had arrived in the lab, Vexen finally woke up (and Zexion, who had awakened earlier, finally finished cleaning up the giant pile of dust outside Roxas' room.) It wasn't long before the two of them joined the rest of their fellow Organization members in the lab, but... someone was missing.

"Where's Michiko?", Zexion asked, looking around the lab for the green-haired girl. Roxas looked a bit confused--though he had met her before once, he still didn't know her name, so he had no idea who Zexion was talking about.

"I haven't seen her around," Lexaeus answered, "And I've been awake longer than anyone. It seems she hasn't returned yet."

"Hmm," Vexen said while typing something into his computer, "She said she was going to visit her relatives in the town not far from here, correct?"

"Yes... she left yesterday, before it was dark," Zexion said, "But I hadn't expected her to stay out so long... either she's decided to stay there overnight, or--"

"It's not that," Vexen said, "Look. The entire town--it's empty." The old man pointed at the computer screen, showing that there was not a single dot signifying life in the entire area. No, that wasn't quite right--there _was_ one left, just one small dot on the far edge of the town, apparently heading in Castle Oblivion's direction.

"That dot," Lexaeus asked, "What is it?"

"I would suppose that dot is Michiko," Vexen said, "The energy patterns match up with those of a Nobody... though it seems to be somewhat weakened."

And, finally, for the first time, Roxas spoke up.

"Um... who's Michiko?"

"Ah... I had almost forgotten--she was already gone when you arrived," Vexen said, "Michiko is another one of our new members. Come here."

Roxas walked over toward Vexen's computer, and watched the screen carefully as he flipped through the information files for each Organization member before finally coming to Roxas' own file. And then, he went forward one slot, and a picture of a young, green-haired girl appeared on the screen along with the rest of the information.

"Oh, _her!_", Roxas said, immediately recognizing the girl's picture, "I saw her on my way here--she was heading toward that little town then, but she wouldn't tell me her name for some reason."

"She _does_ have a habit of doing that," Zexion said, remembering his own first encounter with the girl (or actually, his second--though he didn't really count the _true_ first encounter, when she had tried to kill him along with the rest of the Organization's founding members.)

"But... the town was normal when I passed through there," Roxas said, "What could've happened there... to leave her there alone?"

"There's no way to know now," Lexaeus said, "We'll just have to wait until Michiko returns."

"And she appears to be on her way back at this very moment," Vexen said, watching the blinking yellow dot move further away from the town and toward Castle Oblivion, "Our wait will likely not be much more than a few hours--or less if she speeds up a bit."

* * *

In a strange place, on the borders of the World of Light yet saturated by Darkness, Naminé sat in midair, staring into the darkness around her and apparently waiting for something.

Occasionally, she would hear something, and look around in fear that someone would discover her presence there--but, in most cases, the sounds were only those of Heartless crawling around somewhere in the distance.

Finally, the moment she had waited for came. A deep, booming voice came from somewhere far below her--but she didn't hear it with her ears. Instead, the voice seemed to slowly creep into her mind.

"Do not be afraid," the voice said, "Gil-Neithev cannot see you here--this is the birthplace of Creiv-Rilett, where Darkness first burst forth into existence."

It took a few seconds for her to get used to the voice, but it wasn't nearly as hard in her current state as it would have been before. Eventually, she was able to respond.

"Roxas is coming soon," she said, "To reopen the Door. Are you going to..."

"I cannot choose my path," the voice said, with a hint of what almost seemed like _sadness,_ though it was hard to tell. "Any who pass this way must defeat me in combat, regardless of intentions."

"So... he'll have to fight you..."

"Yes. No intelligent being may pass this way without first defeating me."

Naminé put her hand onto her chin for a second, apparently thinking to herself. She didn't want to put Roxas in danger, but... there was no other choice. If the Door between the worlds of Darkness and Light remained sealed, Gil-Neithev's power would continue to grow unchecked. Even the World of Light must contain some Darkness--without that necessary amount of Darkness, Gil-Neithev's full power would be unleashed, and all things would be burned away by the Flood of Light that would follow.

Even with the Door open, it would happen eventually--Gil-Neithev's plan was already too far along for it to be completely prevented. But if it could be delayed, even for as little as a month's time, there might still be time to do _something_ to change things...

"...Okay," she said, standing up in midair and looking down toward the source of the voice, "He'll come. Don't worry--I'll make sure of it."

"Goodbye," the voice said, "And... I will be waiting."

"He'll come... I don't know how long it will take, or how he'll arive... but he'll be here."

And with that, Naminé faded away, returning to her prison within Kairi--and worse, within Gil-Neithev--once again.


	55. Chapter 50: Problems

**Chapter 50**

"But what _happened?_", Vexen asked, looking down toward the green-haired girl, who was now lying on one of the sickbay's beds. He was beginning to run out of patience--Michiko had returned, but she seemed unwilling to tell anyone exactly what had happened to her.

"Vasilios," she muttered, "He... they... they all died. I couldn't..."

It was the same response Vexen got out of her before. Though she had seemed fine--albeit a bit beaten-up on the outside--when she first came through the door, it was now quite obvious that whatever she had managed to live through had stuck with her.

But then, she finally said something a bit different.

"I couldn't save them."

"Save _who?_", the scientist asked, writing things down on the clipboard he was holding, "From _what?_"

Before Michiko could answer, or Vexen could ask anymore questions, Lexaeus took a few heavy steps into the room.

"Leave her some time to rest," Lexaeus said, "It's too soon to be asking such questions."

The large man then motioned for Vexen to follow him out into the hallway, and he did, closing the door to the sickbay behind him. He looked up toward Lexaeus, looking slightly annoyed for a second, and then noticed that Zexion was also in the hallway, leaning against one of the walls.

"She's already unstable from the years she spent without physical form," Zexion said, "And whatever happened to her last night has only made this worse. If you try too hard to get anything out of her now, you might end up forcing the memories even deeper within instead. We'll never discover what happened to her that way."

Vexen sighed, realizing that his short, blue-haired friend was right. Zexion always was better at dealing with these kinds of problems--regardless of the age difference between the two of them or Vexen's extensive studies, Zexion simply had a natural talent for figuring people out.

There was a short pause, and then Vexen looked up toward the others once again, now with a slight grin on his face.

"I suppose this would not be a good time to introduce her to Roxas, then?"

Zexion couldn't help but laugh a little, and the other two soon followed. Vexen knew the answer to his question already, of course--but in times like this, everyone could use a little bit of sillyness every now and then.

* * *

Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz sat in the stands of Olympus Coliseum alone, still shocked and confused that Sephiroth had been defeated--and, even worse, he had left them behind, without even telling them where he was going.

And, as if their situation wasn't bad enough already, that brown-haired man with the strange gun-sword, who Sephiroth had defeated early on in the tournament, was headed in their direction.

Leon stood in front of the three boys for a few seconds, raising up his Gunblade and balancing it on his shoulder, before he finally spoke.

"So," he said, looking over the three of them, "You've been following Sephiroth around?"

"Um... yeah," Kadaj said, "We're kinda his sidekicks, or something like that."

"Sidekicks... hmm. Doesn't seem like he cares much about what happens to you."

"Hey, don't diss Sephiroth!", Loz said, standing up off of the seat and waving his boxing-glove covered fist around. Leon just looked at him, then at the Gunblade, and Loz quickly sat down again and took off the glove.

"I've been following him too," Leon said. It was a bit of a lie--he was actually searching for Cloud, who had disappeared along with Sephiroth ten years earlier--but it was close enough. "What's he up to?"

"Well... uh... we don't really know," Yazoo said, "We just kinda followed him around because we thought he was cool."

"And he could teach us how to use Darkness!", Loz said, glancing back at Leon the whole time to make sure the man wasn't getting ready to smack him with his Gunblade. Fortunately for him, Leon didn't seem to react at all.

"We never really got around to that part, though," Kadaj said.

"What does he talk about, then?", Leon asked, "When you're following him around. Does he ever _say_ anything that you might have remembered?"

"Well," Yazoo answered, "He mentions some guy named Cloud a lot."

"And his mom," Loz said, "He talks about his mom a lot, too. I think he misses her, or something."

"And the Darkness, too," Kadaj added.

Leon sighed. These three kids didn't know any more about Cloud's whereabouts than he did, even after following Sephiroth around for at least several days--meaning that wherever Cloud had gone to, Sephiroth didn't know where he was either. All these years, he had been following a trail that lead nowhere.

He turned and was about to leave when suddenly the voice of one of the silver-haired teenagers spoke up again.

"So, uh... who's Cloud, anyway?"

Leon turned his head back toward them for a second, and briefly wondered how the three of them could be following Sephiroth around yet still not know exactly who Cloud was.

"Just an old friend," he answered, turning back away from them and continuing to walk away.

* * *

"Sofia has returned to us, my Queen," Zenos said, walking over to Kairi, who was sitting on her throne and staring off into space. She jerked back in her seat, almost seeming to be surprised by the sight of the armored warrior, but then regained her composure and turned toward him.

"Good," she said, her voice once again echoing and deeper than usual, "And Vasilios will not be much longer, I suppose?"

"Correct," Zenos answered, "He should be arriving sometime soon as well. And what then?"

Kairi put her hand to her chin, apparently thinking about something for a few seconds, and then turned back toward the knight to answer.

"The time has come to put an end to Sephiroth's existence," she said, "The Darkness within him has lived long beyond its time--but to destroy what lies within Sephiroth, we must destroy Sephiroth himself as well."

"It will be done, my Queen," Zenos said, "As soon as Vasilios is back with us, the three of us will locate Sephiroth and deal with him."

"All three... hmm," Kairi said, "Do you really think that's necessary?"

"No, of course not, my Queen... I am more than capable of defeating Sephiroth on my own," the knight said, "But with Sofia and Vasilios with me, I could focus on breaking Sephiroth, while the two of them prevent his escape. He will not slip out of our grasp this time."

* * *

And, at Disney Castle, things were going horribly wrong.

While Minnie had been able to calm down and reassure herself that Mickey was _not_ going to suddenly become some sort of terrible, Darkness-worshipping monster, many of the castle's other inhabitants weren't so lucky. Though the angry mobs had subsided after it was discovered that Riku and the King had disappeared, there was a feeling all throughout the castle--no, the entire _world_--that even the tiniest spark would enrage them once again--and there was a good chance that someone would end up hurt.

Donald and Goofy's condition just made everything that much worse--normally, the two of them would be just fine even when the rest of the castle was panicking, but now the court wizard and his knight friend were frozen in a strange sleep which none of Minnie's magic had even the slightest effect on.

_"Maybe,"_ she thought for a second, staring at the two of them in their beds, "_"Maybe... what Mickey and Riku were saying was right... that Darkness can cure them... somehow."_

She had always been taught that Darkness was a destructive force, a force that by its very nature must consume all that it reaches. But ever since Mickey had returned, practically unharmed--or perhaps even _stronger_ than he was before, thanks to the Keyblade he had discovered--from the World of Darkness itself, she began to have her doubts. Her old beliefs, of Darkness as Evil given a physical form, had become entangled with the things she had seen, and they were clashing in her mind at this very moment.

If Light could be used to cause harm, could the use of Darkness undo that harm?

It may have gone against everything she had been told when she was a child, and against much of what she had learned from Yen Sid later, but that didn't stop it from making sense.


	56. Chapter 51: Ancestor

**Author's Note:** Yeah, it's the Riku and Xehanort, kid-and-his-(insert about 100 or so "greats" here)-grandpa bonding chapter. Somehow I didn't expect this to fill up a full chapter's-worth of stuff, but... it kinda did. Heh.

* * *

**Chapter 51**

Before Riku knew it, nearly a full day had passed.

Ever since he had arrived at the old mansion on the outskirts of the World That Never Was, and met Xehanort, he had been sitting on the couch in what appeared to be the mansion's living room, listening to Xehanort's stories of the ancient past.

Xehanort told him of the World of Darkness as it was before the Heartless came, a place populated almost exclusively by the dark-skinned tribe who were the distant ancestors of both of them. Well, distant ancestors of _him,_ anyway--Xehanort was over eight hundred years old, and had been born in a time before the majority of the world's population had been wiped out by the Heartless invasions.

Riku learned the true reason why the name of the city nearby was "The World That Never Was"--the name was actually a direct translation of the place's original name, but the name wasn't meant to be taken literally. It was similar to how the literal meaning of "utopia" is "no place," even though the generally-understood meaning of the word is something closer to "paradise." The World That Never Was was the same way--the name was intended to reflect the fact that, when it was built, it was a paradise for its people, who had only barely escaped destruction at the hands of Gil-Neithev and had never seen such a city before.

He learned of the differences between naturally-occuring Heartless and those that resulted from Ansem's experiments, also learning that the emblems on the Heartless were not a perfect indication of their origin. Just as many Shadows and similar creatures resulted from Ansem's experiments, many emblem-bearing Heartless were the results of other Heartless devouring the hearts of people they met. These days, when Heartless of both types had spread to all sorts of worlds, the emblems were virtually meaningless--quite a few new varieties of Heartless bearing the emblems had developed since then, even on worlds untouched by Ansem's experiments.

Xehanort told him stories of his own life--stories of how he began his training to be a Warrior of Darkness at a very young age, growing to be incredibly powerful in his adolescent years and then heading off to combat Gil-Neithev's forces. He told stories of the apocalyptic battles that took place between the Warriors of Darkness and that Light-formed monster, taking place all across the desert on the opposite side of this world as well as deep within the core of his own homeworld. Riku had never expected that his home--the islands he had grown up on--was the very place where Gil-Neithev had been sealed.

Now that he thought about it, that _did_ explain a lot of things--the most obvious of them being the fact that Gil-Neithev, once released, had dominated that world before any other.

The stories continued for hours beyond this point, with Xehanort telling how he traveled around the World of Light for a while, of how he defeated the last remaining followers of Gil-Neithev in the Twilight World before finally returning home, and of how he attempted to live a normal life again after his return. How he married, and how he and his wife raised their only son for several years before he discovered that Gil-Neithev's curse had more effects than simply preventing him from aging.

He told of his return trip to the World of Light, and of how he wrote a series of scrolls that told parts of his story, in case it was not passed down over the generations as it should have been. He told of his memory loss, and of how the cure for the curse only caused more problems.

And then everything went blank. He fell unconscious on a spacecraft headed away from the world of the elves, and did not awaken until nearly three hundred years had passed. He found himself without even a shred of his memories, vastly weakened and reverted to a teenager by the de-aging effect of the curse that had arisen only after he thought he was cured. He told of how he was discovered by Ansem and another researcher named Even, and of how he too became one of Ansem's apprentices in his research of the heart.

He told the story of the six apprentices--Braig, a former soldier from the world of elves; as good a marksman as he was a mechanic. Dilan, another elf who recieved combat training in the Land of Dragons; a skilled fighter and loyal bodyguard. Even, the only one of the six who was a Radiant Garden native; the somewhat eccentric--but brilliant--scientist, and a former teacher. Elaeus, an architect and history buff from a distant world; as helpful to their research as he was tall. Ienzo, a child prodigy from the same world as Elaeus; wise beyond his years and always eager to try new things. And finally, Xehanort--once the legendary Warrior of Darkness who banished Gil-Neithev; now only an amnesiac young man with an odd desire to learn about the Darkness.

After that, the stories became significantly less uplifting. Xehanort told of how he was driven mad, becoming obsessed with the Darkness and the power it could bring. Of how he took Ansem's experiments even further, amplifying the Darkness in an attempt to create the ultimate Heartless bioweapon.

And, in the end, discovering that only a heart filled with a powerful Darkness, such as his own, could create such a Heartless.

Xehanort told how he exiled his mentor, Ansem, to the World of Nothingness, and took his name as his own. Of how he removed his own heart from its body, becoming the first Heartless to retain form and intelligence even as a being of heart alone. Of how he traveled the worlds as a mysterious, brown-cloaked wanderer, whose identity was known to none but himself and a certain witch who channeled the Darkness for her magic. Of how, on each world he visited, he left a small group of Heartless--which, if not dealt with, would soon expand into a full-fledged invasion force, decimating the world, devouring its population, and finally squirming their way into the heart of the world itself and devouring it as well.

It seemed that Xehanort found these stories almost _painful_ to tell. Occasionally, Riku would look over to him to find him hunched over, staring at the floor as he quietly told the stories of the horrible things he had done in the past, when he was blinded by insanity, driven by obsession, and going by the name "Ansem" rather than his own. Even Riku's own regret for the things he did under the control of "Ansem" seemed utterly insignificant compared to what Xehanort felt. The sadness and disgust that the tall, dark-skinned man felt when he spoke about what he _used_ to be almost seemed to fill the room like a fog, causing the group of little Heartless sitting on the couch to shiver occasionally.

Finally, he came to the point in his story where his memory went blank. His first defeat at the hands of Sora, when a burst of Light summoned up from Kingdom Hearts by Mickey nearly destroyed him before the power of Darkness he had called for could arrived. The last thing he remembered was diving deeper within Riku's heart to avoid the burning light, hiding within the boy's body rather than controlling him.

It was only then, after hearing all these things, that Riku finally knew for sure that what Dorga said was true.

Xehanort was his ancestor--a hero, the Warrior of Darkness who had defeated Gil-Neithev many years ago. They were so much alike, now that Riku had finally extinguished the fear of Darkness that haunted him as a child, that he was surprised he had never noticed the similarities before.

Even Xehanort seemed to notice, as he made clear as he was finishing the story.

"Riku," he said, lifting his head and looking toward his descendent, "You remind me of myself when I was younger... at first I was unsure of myself, unsure that the Darkness would be able to help. Do you know what it was that finally spurred me on to complete my training and go after Gil-Neithev?"

"No... what was it?"

"My friends, Riku," he said, "I saw them fall to the Shin'an, their hearts twisting and warping into those hideous insects before my very eyes. Only then was I able to complete my training with the Darkness--to unleash my true power."

Xehanort stood up, carefully sliding the Heartless off of his lap first and then patting it on the head lightly. The creature squeaked happily, then quickly scurried into the spot where he was sitting seconds earlier.

"You were the same way, Riku--you were weak at first. No matter how much Darkness I provided, your true power only emerged when you fought for the sake of those you cared about... when you defeated me beneath the surface at Castle Oblivion. That was when your training began. And now, Riku... like I did ages ago, you have completed your training."


	57. Chapter 52: Others

**Chapter 52**

As creepy as it was when you were wandering around in its vast wilderness or approaching its long-abandoned cities, the World of Darkness was a nice place to sleep.

There was no worry of the sunlight creeping into the window to wake you up too early, and the Heartless were surprisingly quiet when Xehanort was asleep. In fact, many of _them_ were asleep, too--hundreds of them had piled up around Xehanort on his bed, and several had gathered on the guest-bed where Riku slept as well.

And, as always, a long, peaceful sleep would often lead to dreams.

At some point in the night, Xehanort began to have a strange dream. It was different than most of the dreams he had been having lately--the primary difference being that it was _not_ a message sent to him in his sleep by Naminé, informing him of a moment of his past or on events currently happening on other worlds.

No, this dream was very different from the dreams sent by Naminé.

It was a dream about Xemnas.

First, it began with several flashes of color--strange, unfamiliar colors, not any that occurred naturally. And then, a small, shapeless body appeared. There was another flash, and it became something that resembled Xemnas if he were five years old--he looked surprisingly similar to Xehanort at that age, but his skin was not quite as dark and his hair had already begun to change.

The young Xemnas began to walk around in the black void around him, looking around in all directions and apparently not noticing how odd it was to be walking in a black void. With each step, he aged slightly, eventually stopping at one point--approximately the same age that Xehanort had been when Xemnas was first created. He then took several more steps, aging a bit further, until he looked exactly the same as he had in the Organization's final years.

Xemnas' deep, ominous voice--which seemed familiar, even though Xehanort had never actually heard it himself--suddenly boomed throughout the void, saying only a simple and very obvious (albeit rather un-Xemnas-like) phrase: "I exist."

And then, he fell to the ground and dissolved away into nothing, leaving an empty black void once again.

Xehanort, for some reason, was dreaming about his Nobody's life--but simplified to a ridiculous degree.

But something was wrong. Xemnas had never had his own childhood--he had not yet existed when Xehanort was that young.

Xehanort awakened suddenly, jerking up and nearly standing on his bed. Several Heartless squeaked in fright and ran away, only to return soon afterward when Xehanort calmed down again. It wasn't long before the odd dream was mostly forgotten, and he--and the other Heartless--quickly drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Sora stepped out of the glowing door and into the hot, shifting sands of a familiar world. His curiosity about the disappearances throughout the worlds had finally gotten the best of him, so he had left his home to find out for himself what was happening--and the first world he had decided to check was the desert land of Agrabah.

"Well, nothing looks much different from here," he said, looking out over the desert, his cape flapping in the wind, "Though... it almost seems _hotter_ now than it was the last time I was here..."

He stood there for about a minute longer before dismissing the apparent rise in temperature as a side-effect of his royal clothes, which were a bit thicker than the ones he wore the last time he visited. Sora headed off through the desert, toward the city visible in the distance, and was immediately reminded of how annoying walking in sand could be.

At least it wasn't nearly as bad as it could've been. He could have still been wearing those giant yellow shoes he liked so much as a kid.

* * *

Roxas paced back and forth outside the sickbay, wondering when he would get the chance to head off on his mission to open the Door to Darkness. It was hard to get a word in with the rest of the Organization busy monitoring Michiko's condition. In fact, he hadn't been allowed into the room at all--as Zexion had said earlier, suddenly introducing new people to someone who was both physically and mentally wounded would not have been a good idea.

But he couldn't just run off without telling anyone where he was going first. He'd done that before, and it hadn't turned out well--he _did_ let Axel know before he left, but... at that point, Axel wasn't very highly respected by Xemnas or Saix. Telling Axel wasn't a whole lot better than not telling anyone at all--after the Castle Oblivion incident, Xemnas hardly trusted Axel even on simple things like mission reports. He'd never believe that Roxas had left willingly--he'd think that Axel had some hand in it, encouraging him to leave or something like that.

So, he'd have to wait a little while before heading off this time. Fortunately, it seemed like he'd have something else to do to pass his time--Otonashi, the mysterious silver-haired Nobody who had recently joined the Organization, had just left the sickbay and stood in the hallway along with him.

"So," Roxas asked, looking toward the older man, "Whose Nobody are you, anyway? I've heard the stories from Vexen, Lexaeus, and Zexion, and I think I remember one of them mentioning a girl that sounded a lot like Michiko, but... what about you?"

"Um... what do you...", Otonashi started to say, but before he could finish his eyes seemed to light up like he had suddenly "got" it. "Oh, you're asking where I came from... right?"

"Pretty much," Roxas shrugged, "I figured that since you don't have an X in your name, they must've ditched the whole name-changing thing, so..."

"Well... I'm from a big city," Otonashi said, "On a tropical island, part of a little chain on a world that's almost all ocean... well, it's a big city place _now,_ but it wasn't always like that."

"Hmm... that sounds familiar," Roxas said, "My Other's hometown was on an island, too. Seemed like a pretty nice place, from what I remember..."

"Your 'Other?'"

"Just a little thing I came up with after I found out that my heart was still out there," Roxas answered, "Nobody else in the Organization really had a name for that kind of thing, so it kinda stuck."

Otonashi suddenly noticed something familiar about Roxas once again, though he still wasn't sure what it was that he recognized. He surely hadn't met him before--the name "Roxas" didn't sound very familiar, but...

And then he remembered--he _had_ heard the name before. Riku had mentioned fighting someone named "Roxas," and that fighting Roxas would somehow help Sora get back his memories--or something like that. It was hard to remember every last detail of the things Riku had said, especially since it had been a long time since he had even _seen_ his son.

"So, um...", Otonashi said, "You were in the Organization before... right? Or are you a new member like Michiko and I?"

"Yeah, I've been a member before," Roxas said, "Way back, ten years ago at least... well, it's been a little more than that now, I think. I wasn't here for very long, though."

"Oh," Otonashi said, wondering exactly why he hadn't been a member for long but not daring to ask. Had Riku _killed_ him? No, that couldn't be right... but some of the older members _had_ mentioned having died and then returned as clones...

"So... why did... I mean," Otonashi said, "How come you weren't in the Organization very long? What happened?"

"Well... I kind of left," Roxas said, looking a bit sadder than he had a second ago, "And... I wasn't able to come back."

Otonashi looked at Roxas for a second, noticing the look of sadness on his face, and decided that it was probably better _not_ to ask for any specifics.

And Roxas, noticing for the first time that Otonashi looked an awful lot like the silver-haired boy who had helped DiZ capture him, decided it was probably better not to tell him any of the specifics.


	58. Chapter 53: War in the Desert

**Author's Note:** Yes, that little Sora/Kairi bit at the end is the closest I will EVER get to writing a... "romantic" scene. That "T" rating is for the people bleeding and being stabbed and slashed and dying and cussing, and nothing else. Heh.

* * *

**Chapter 53**

It was yet another normal day in Agrabah.

...that is, if you considered a record-breaking temperature and another string of mysterious disappearances "normal." Something was definitely going on in the desert city--and for the first time in a long time, nobody had any idea who was responsible for it.

The guards tried to search for the cause of the disappearances, but so far they had found nothing. A few reports from supposed witnesses of the disappearances mentioned something bright flying overhead, blinding them like the sun, but nobody had any idea what could have caused something like that to happen. Some of the citizens suspected Jafar had returned once again, and that he was somehow blinding witnesses with some form of light-based magic, but all evidence pointed toward Jafar being dead and gone.

Nobody noticed the clawmarks on the buildings, and the dim glow left behind by the true culprits was lost in the far-brighter glow of the sun reflecting off of the sand.

On most worlds, the Shin'an would wait until it was night to strike--to catch their victims when they were asleep, kill their bodies, and extract their hearts. But on the desert-world where Agrabah was located, things worked a bit differently. The light reflecting off of the sand was an excellent hiding spot for creatures that were composed of pure Light--rather than lurking in the shadows to catch sleeping victims, they would hide in plain sight, preying on anyone foolish enough to wander just a bit off to the side of the paths through the desert sands. The Shin'an didn't even need to hide the bodies--the wind and shifting sand would quickly do that for them.

* * *

But today was going to be a bit different.

Aladdin sped through the air on his flying carpet, crossing the desert sands at blinding speeds as he searched for anything that would point him in the direction of whoever--or _whatever_--had been responsible for all the disappearances. The Sultan had told everyone to stay indoors as much as possible (as none of those who had gone missing were inside when it happened), and to avoid going out into the desert if at all possible... but Aladdin never did like sitting around inside all day.

As he turned the carpet around to make another sweep around the Cave of Wonders, he suddenly felt something tug on one corner of the flying rug. This was quickly followed by a series of similar tugs, each from a slightly different direction but all pulling down.

"What the--"

Before he could finish his sentence, the carpet did a nosedive into the sand, sending Aladdin flying forward. He managed to roll as he hit the sand, softening the impact a bit, and quickly pulled out his scimitar, preparing for whatever had knocked him out of the air to attack.

And they did, bursting up out of the sand all around him. At first there were only tentacles, several of which had apparently latched onto the flying carpet, but soon the creatures those tentacles were attached to appeared as well, burrowing up from underneath the sand and crawling toward him. They looked somewhat like pale, glowing slugs, but with several tentacles where their eyes should have been and a round, tooth-filled mouth in the middle of the ring of tentacles.

"What _are_ these things!?", Aladdin yelled, backing away as more and more of the creatures burst up through the sand and began to creep closer and closer.

"Some kind of Heartless? No, that can't be it--they don't look anything like Heartless... but--"

Before he could decide exactly _what_ he thought they were, they were on the attack. Several of the glowing, tentacled slug-things had emerged from the sand behind him as well, and the things seemed to be trying to trap him--so he did what anyone armed with a sword would do and spun toward the creatures, slashing away at several of them at a time and knocking them away. A few of the creatures were thrown backward with damaged tentacles, but they still kept coming, closer and closer. He looked back toward the spot where he had crashed, and noticed that the flying carpet was being held down by several of the creatures--tied down to the sand by their tentacles, thrashing about but still unable to move.

And then a tentacle came lashing out toward his leg, grabbing him by the ankle and holding on tight. He swiped at it with his sword, severing the tentacle, but more and more of them began to reach for him. Several of the creatures puffed up slightly, then suddenly flattened out again, blasting Aladdin with streams of sand that they had apparently consumed while burrowing.

Sand flew into his eyes, blinding him. He felt more and more of the creatures latch onto him, tying him to the ground by his feet, and he felt his legs begin to sink into the sand. They were pulling him under. He swung his blade blindly at the things, still trying to get the sand out of his eyes with his free hand, but the more he struggled, the tighter the grip of the tentacles became. He was up to his chest in sand now, and was sinking more and more with every second that passed. He was about to scream for help...

And then a rough, sand-covered tentacle came flying at his face, whipping over his mouth and tying it shut. More tentacles wrapped around his head--he wasn't being pulled under anymore, now that he was on eye-level with the strange creatures. He noticed that they actually did have eyes after all--about six small, glowing eyes, located just a bit above their mouths.

And then his own eyes were covered as another tentacle wrapped itself around his head, blinding him once again. The tentacles over his mouth tightened, and it became difficult to breathe.

He had discovered the cause of the disappearances, only to become the next one to go missing, buried and suffocating beneath the sand in the sea of horrible, glowing tentacles that lurked just below the surface.

...or so he thought.

There was the sound of a horse approaching, and in an instant, a dozen of the creatures were torn away from his upper body and flung off into the sand several yards away. A pair of strong hands grabbed onto him and began to pull against the force of the tentacles beneath the sand, ripping him free from the grip of the horrible slug-creatures that had nearly killed him.

He looked up to see a familiar face--though wearing a turban and with his face partially covered, he immediately recognized his rescuer as none other than his own father.

"Dad?", Aladdin asked, barely able to speak. He was about to say something else when he fell unconscious, deprived of oxygen for just a second too long. Cassim immediately reached down and picked up his son's scimitar from his hands and hopped off of his horse, lifting Aladdin up and harnessing him onto the saddle. He then sent the horse, carrying his unconscious son, off toward the city--he would be safer there.

"I've lost my son once," he said, holding his two swords and watching the creatures approach, "And I will not let that happen again... not now--not to _you._"

Cassim ran into the cluster of slug-like Shin'an, slashing at them with both his sword and his son's and kicking up sand as he went. The creatures were thrown all over, some of them missing tentacles and others simply sliced in half, dissolving away into a white dust that soon settled and mixed with the sand. Dozens of the things fell to the ground dead, glowing brightly for a second before finally breaking apart into dust.

The numbers of the glowing slugs quickly thinned out, with the few remaining ones burrowing into the sand to escape as Cassim slashed toward them. The desert was now coated in a dimly-glowing white powder, and for a second it almost looked as if it had just _snowed_ in the desert--but the next gust of wind that came along scattered the dust away into the air, each grain fading away into nothingness soon afterward.

But it wasn't over yet. The ground seemed to shake beneath him, and Cassim instinctively leaped out of the way and onto a nearby sand dune--all those years in the Forty Thieves had certainly improved his reflexes, if nothing else. A massive ring of tentacles exploded upward out of the ground, sending sand flying everywhere and forcing Cassim to hold up his hands to cover his eyes. A gaping hole opened up between the tentacles, swallowing up the sand above it, and then there was a sharp, metallic sound as several rows of teeth suddenly popped out of the wall of the hole.

The former King of Thieves jumped away again, but the tentacles flew after him, scraping across the sand as they went and lashing out in all different directions. Several of them began to glow brightly, and before he could react, a blast of Light slammed into his chest, sending him flying backward and slamming into the sand. He got back up, holding up his swords in preparation for another attack, and one of the tentacles came slamming down, nearly pressing him down into the sand just from the force against the two swords.

And then one last tentacle emerged from the sand, somewhere a bit further away--a single long tentacle, with a slight bulge at the top and three eyes in a triangle-like pattern in its center. The eyes look at him, unblinking, and then twitched slightly before sending a barrage of energy beams toward him. Cassim swung his two swords just in time to block the first two beams, but the third hit him in the leg, knocking him off balance. A tentacle swept toward him, cutting a line in the sand as it went, and he was bowled over, sent rolling down the sandy hill toward the fissure in the ground that must have been the creature's mouth. He jammed one of the swords into the sand as far as it could go and held onto it for balance, but before long it began to slip.

But before anything else could happen, there was a battle cry from somewhere behind him, and then a strange, almost-key-shaped weapon appeared, spinning in midair and flying into the creature's tentacles. A white-and-gold blur came rushing across the sand, catching up with the Keyblade before it had begun to spin back in the direction it came from.

"Hold on!", the white-clothed, caped stranger said, "I can handle this! All you have to do is make sure you don't fall in!"

"Rrr... easier said than done!", Cassim grunted, attempting to push the sword further down into the sand while still holding on tightly. He jabbed his second sword in as well, and pushed down on them, driving the blades deep into the ground like tent stakes.

"This should hold for a while, but... make it quick!"

"Don't worry!"

The Keyblade-wielder was a man with spikey brown hair, probably at least a few years younger than Aladdin but apparently a good deal more powerful. When he moved, it was hard to see much more than a blur--white clothes and golden markings becoming a white-and-gold streak across the sand, and the white Keyblade looking like just another extension of his body as it slammed into the three-eyed tentacle repeatedly, knocking it around like a punching bag.

* * *

Sora sliced at the Shin'an's eye-tentacle, not knowing _why_ a Shin'an had decided to attack Aladdin, of all people--and even worse, attacking Aladdin's father as well! The Shin'an were supposed to seek out and destroy evil beings, those that were saturated in Darkness, he had always thought. That was what the teachings of Gil-Neithev had always said--so why were they attacking innocent people now?

The Oathkeeper Keyblade slammed into the thing's eye-stalk once again, nearly poking out one of the three eyes, and Sora heard a strange voice in his mind.

_"Servant of the Light, what is this?"_

"What are you talking about!?", Sora yelled to the voice that had echoed in his head, struggling to stay focused on the battle rather than the strange voice. Another flurry of Keyblade swings, and the creature had lost several of its tentacles. A horrible shriek came from deep within the hole in the ground, and the ground shook once again.

It was beginning to submerge once again--and once it did, it would be impossible to find.

Sora immediately ran back toward the largest tentacle, where the eyes were located, and leaped hight above it before diving down toward it at an incredible speed, Keyblade held out in front of him. The sharp tip of the Oathkeeper's blade pierced the center area between the triangle of eyes, and a final gurgling scream came from somewhere beneath the sand. The tentacles began to glow brightly, and Sora pulled his Keyblade up and out of the creature's eyestalk, tearing it nearly in half. The glow became unbearably bright--even for Sora--for a second before quickly dimming, and then the entire thing began to break away into millions upon millions of white dust specks.

And Sora heard a deep, echoing voice, filled with anger, fill his mind.

_"You fool... Sora, return to the Light, or you too will be destroyed!"_

There was a bright flash and a sound like glass smashing, and then Sora's field of vision went blank. He quickly slipped away into unconsciousness, his eyes glazed over and his mouth frozen in a stunned expression, as he fell backwards... right into a glowing door that opened on the ground.

* * *

And suddenly, he was back on his island-city home, lying in his bed. He had just awakened to find Kairi sitting on the side of his bed, holding onto his arm, with a look of concern on her face.

"Sora... are you okay?", she asked, "You went to take a nap a few hours ago, and you've been tossing and turning the whole time. Did you have a nightmare?"

Sora looked confused, staring up at the celing and wondering just _how_ he had gotten where he was. He hadn't remembered going to take a nap that day... and he clearly remembered entering the Door to the Light and traveling to Agrabah.

Or was it all just a dream? He couldn't feel any sand in his clothes, and he was no longer wearing his royal outfit at all--instead, he had on his usual sleeping clothes, which happened to be a pair of boxer shorts with images of paopu fruits on them. His arms didn't feel tired at all--which meant that he certainly couldn't have been _fighting_ on a distant world just a second ago... right?

"Y-yeah...", Sora stuttered, still not quite sure _what_ had just happened, "I guess that's all it was... just a bad dream. I thought I went to Agrabah, and... and... there were Shin'an there..."

"Well, that's silly," Kairi said, "Why would there be Shin'an in Agrabah?"

"I don't know... there were a lot of them, though," Sora said, "And... they were just... _attacking_ people, for no reason at all... innocent people, not minions of the Darkness or anything... it was just so confusing..."

"Don't worry," Kairi said, lying down beside Sora and cuddling up to him reassuringly, "It was all just a dream, Sora. You know the Shin'an are beings of Light--they'd never hurt anyone who wasn't a threat to the worlds."

"Yeah... I guess you're right," Sora said, turning to hug his wife, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be getting so bent out of shape over a dream..."

"That's okay," Kairi said, smiling at him, "Everything will be all right, Sora--just wait and see. Once we rid the worlds of Darkness, everything will be right again--just like it always was when we were kids--a paradise of Light, without even a hint of Darkness on the horizon... don't you wish everything would be that way again?"

"Of course!", Sora said, now flooded with memories of his childhood and grinning like he was a silly little kid again, "Don't worry--I won't let these dreams scare me like this ever again, Kairi. I promise this time."

Kairi smiled at Sora once again, and then gave a quick glance to each side of the room, her eyes flickering slightly. The blinds on the windows shifted, preventing any light from outside from coming in, and then the two doors slammed shut, leaving the two of them with some much-needed privacy.


	59. Chapter 54: One Week Later

**Author's Note:** Picking up the pace a bit, here. A week has passed since the events of the last few chapters...

* * *

**Chapter 54**

It was nearly a week before Michiko was well enough to get out of bed again. Apparently, she had overexerted herself to an extreme level, using far too much of her powers at once--at least, that was Vexen's hypothesis. Few other things would explain the fact that her wounds had not healed nearly as fast as similar wounds on previous Organization members had--something must have depleted the Twilight energy within her body, slowing her recovery.

Whatever the cause, seven days came and went, and she was suddenly back in top condition once again, seeming to spring back from both the physical and psychological damage as if none of it had happened.

Zexion knew better, of course--he was always good at reading people that way. He had known Michiko longer than anyone else left alive, and he could tell that something was a bit different about her--she didn't hold as much back from the Organization as she had before, and she seemed more eager to go after the Shin'an and other forces of Gil-Neithev now... more willing to fight. All was well on the surface, but somewhere underneath... she still had not recovered.

Or perhaps she had just finally grown up. It was hard to tell, even for Zexion.

Other than Michiko's recovery, not a lot had changed in Castle Oblivion. Otonashi had still not managed to discover what elemental power he had been blessed with, though his skill in physical combat with his oddly fishing-pole-like whip had improved a bit. Zexion finally got around to cutting his hair, and now it only hung down a little ways over one side of his face (like it had years ago) rather than hanging down to his chest on one side and nearly covering his eye on the other.

Roxas' room was now decorated the way he liked it, resembling his room back home in Twilight Town. The dust was cleared out, though that vile pizza stain on the carpet still remained. Michiko's room, too, had changed a bit--only a few of Marluxia's decorations remained, though the pink-and-green color scheme was still the same as always.

Otonashi's room--once Luxord's--hadn't changed much at all, however. Apparently, he didn't mind Luxord's furniture much--and who would? The gambler came from a rich family, and it was very easy to see that by looking at his room. There were cushy, padded chairs everywhere, made from dark, polished wood and usually with expensive-looking velvet pillows sitting on them. There was even a large couch on one side of the room, far larger than most of the ones in the public rooms of the castle, and various gold and jewels embedded into the walls (most likely the spoils of Luxord's trips to casinos and towns all over the world and beyond.)

* * *

But, regardless of how little had changed inside the castle, things were changing all around in the outside world.

Agrabah was now overrun with Shin'an, the white, glowing insects surrounding the city and preventing anyone from leaving for help. A few people--including Jasmine, one of the Princesses of Heart--had managed to escape from the city under seige (with a bit of help from a certain genie), but hundreds had been killed, their hearts adding to the ever-growing legions of Shin'an.

Disney Castle, in absence of their King, had lost all resemblance to the place it once was. Queen Minnie tried to control the angry mobs of Darkness-fearing, trigger-happy citizens, but nothing could stop them once they were stirred up this way--they honestly believed themselves to be the forces of good, fighting off a sort of "last stand" of the Darkness, and regardless of how wrong that belief was, they refused to change.

Minnie had been locked up in the dungeons beneath the castle, along with Daisy Duck and several others who had objected to the crusade against Darkness. They were given an indefinite sentence, doomed to sit in the dungeon until they managed to find a way to bring Donald and Goofy out of their mysterious sleep that no power of Light could remove.

Radiant Garden had now come under attack by the Shin'an as well, forcing the members of the Restoration Committee to make an abrupt return from their mission to find Cloud. They arrived home to a world that lived in fear, unable to leave the planet thanks to the enormous, asteroid-dwelling Shin'an that lurked just beyond it, waiting to pounce on their Gummi Ships as they passed.

Many other worlds had slowly begun to fall to the forces of Gil-Neithev as well, with some following the Light willingly and others being subdued by wave after wave of Shin'an that cut down the populations of the worlds while steadily increasing their own ranks.

But that was hardly all that was going on. While Gil-Neithev's Shin'an army was busy tearing through worlds, another force was building as well--Maleficent and her minions had begun to attack worlds, using the Castle That Never Was as a sort of mobile battle station and hopping between worlds and conquering them as she went. They had recently learned that the entire castle--engines, lights, and all--was in fact powered by _water._ This was fortunate for Maleficent, as the first world she visited once her own homeworld was dominated was Atlantica, a world covered in vast oceans and filled with mermaids and various fish.

It would not be long before the forces of Light and Darkness would clash once again--but this time, neither side had the best interests of the worlds in mind.

But not all the news from across the universe was bad. In the World of Darkness, Riku had undergone a week of hard training under Xehanort, learning ancient techniques for controlling the power of Darkness and using it in ways that the younger man had never thought possible. Riku now knew how to make himself virtually invisible by cloaking his body in Darkness and forcing the light to bend around him, and how to protect himself from extremes of temperature and pressure using similar techniques.

Mickey had managed to find a functioning Gummi Ship, and had traveled across the worlds fighting off the Shin'an threat. With his newly-empowered Keyblade, the small King was even more prepared for his job of protecting the worlds than ever before--Light and Darkness, the living and the dead, magic and the Keyblade, all working together to stop any threat to the universe or those who lived in it.

And, perhaps the best news of all, Gil-Neithev was not yet powerful enough for the final phase of his plan to begin.

But it would not be long...


	60. Chapter 55: Darkness Emerges

**Author's Note:** Sephiroth's story is not as close to the FF7 version as you might have expected... you'll find out what I mean by that later.

* * *

**Chapter 55**

Roxas had finally gotten around to telling the rest of his fellow Organization members about the mission he had been given by Naminé, and the entire group had decided that sending Roxas alone was not a good idea. So the Organization had finally decided to begin their attack on Gil-Neithev.

Zexion would go along with Roxas on his journey to reopen the door connecting the worlds of Light and Darkness, while Vexen and Lexaeus would head into enemy territory and begin to investigate Gil-Neithev's forces. If all went well, the two of them would discover the location of Gil-Neithev's stronghold just as Roxas and Zexion's part of the plan was completed, and the four could meet up somewhere along the way and then finally confront Gil-Neithev himself.

Everyone else had agreed that Michiko was probably better off staying in the castle--especially after her last battle, which left her bedridden for a week. But there was just one problem: Michiko herself wasn't willing to stay behind and wait when she could be helping stop Gil-Neithev.

"But I _can_ fight!", Michiko yelled, sitting up off of her bed in the sickbay, "I'm even stronger now than I was twenty years ago! And if _anyone_ deserves a chance to finish off those knights of Gil-Neithev, it's--"

"_Not_ you," Zexion finished her sentence for her, "Not now. You don't have enough control over your powers yet to be running headlong into Gil-Neithev's forces like that."

"But... I _can_ fight them," she said, "I've fought them already. I'm strong enough now. Vasilios, the shorter one with the raspy voice... I _killed_ him."

"You're not ready," Zexion said, "And we certainly can't have you halfway killing yourself like this again--especially not in the World of Light. Do you realize what people there _do_ to Nobodies?"

"Well... I..."

"You _don't_ know," Zexion snapped, "You've never had to go to a place where people don't even know you exist--or, if they do, they don't _want_ you to exist. You aren't ready for that yet--so you are _not_ coming with us."

Michiko looked hurt, lowering her head and staring at the bedsheets she was sitting on. It took a second, but Zexion finally realized that he had perhaps been a little too hard on the girl--and all because she hadn't been forced to follow Xemnas' orders and avoid being lynched by the World of Light's more ignorant residents.

"I mean..."

Zexion wasn't able to finish his sentence, as Lexaeus stepped in to finish it for him.

"Zexion did not mean to hurt your feelings," the large man said, "He's simply worried that, if you come with us, you'll end up hurt. He was forced to watch helplessly as each of his friends died, Michiko--he doesn't want it to happen again."

"Y-yeah...", Michiko stuttered, "You're probably right..."

"Besides, you won't be alone here," Vexen said, "As Otonashi has not discovered his powers yet, he will be staying behind as well."

Slowly, the battle-ready members of Organization XIII left the sickbay. Zexion slipped out quickly, looking back one last time and nodding slightly at Michiko as she turned toward him. Vexen and Lexaeus followed shortly behind their blue-haired friend, and Roxas was the last to leave, stopping in the doorway and turning around for a second.

"Don't worry, you guys," he said, looking over toward Michiko's bed and to the corner where Otonashi was standing, "You'll be safer here--and we'll all come back when we're finished over there. Even if it takes a month, or even a year... we'll be back."

And then, after a few waves goodbye, Roxas left as well, running along the hall to catch up with the others.

* * *

Sephiroth's Masamune clashed against a trio of Keyblades, only barely able to block the three strikes at once without breaking. Sparks crackled at the spots where the three heavy, metallic-looking Keyblades had struck, seemingly grinding away at the sword's blade in an attempt to break through even after being blocked. And then there was a massive explosion, and Sephiroth went flying backward.

This was something the one-winged angel simply wasn't used to--being absolutely overpowered by an enemy, to the point where blocking even _half_ of the attacks was nearly impossible. Zenos alone was more than a match for him--but with three of the knights fighting together...

Sephiroth was sent flying backward by one of Zenos' Keyblade swings, catching himself just in time to avoid a blow from each of the other knights' weapons. Beams of Light came crashing down from all directions, knocking him around between the three knights like a giant black-and-silver ping-pong ball. He flew out of the way of the next few blasts, rolling along the dark, blue-green grass away from the knights, and tried to open a portal to the Dark Passage to escape...

...and was promptly smashed away from the portal before it could fully open by a swing from Zenos' Keyblade, sending him flying high into the air. He caught his balance in midair, using his wings to stay aloft, but it wasn't long before the knights were on the attack once again. Sofia's Keyblade cut into his side, and Vasilios' weapon nearly impaled the wing on his shoulder, causing it to spasm uncontrollably for a second before going completely limp. Zenos' heavy blade came swinging in last, smashing him across the face and sending him crashing down to the ground.

The one-winged angel had fallen.

"And now for the hard part," Zenos said, pointing his Keyblade to the crumpled body on the ground, now coated with blood and stray feathers. The key-like part on the end began to glow brightly, and a thin, barely-visible beam emerged from it, swirling around Sephiroth and leaving glowing patterns of lines behind as it went. The other two Warriors of Light nodded and held out their Keyblades as well, and two more beams emerged and traced the arcane patterns, causing them to glow brightly around Sephiroth and lift the half-dead man into the air.

"Creiv-Rilett may be weakened, now that the Light has pushed back the Darkness," Zenos said, staring onward and holding out his Keyblade, "But that changes nothing. We must be absolutely sure that not even a single shred of her existence remains."

A bright shaft of light erupted from the ground beneath Sephiroth, and the three knights all held their Keyblades in his direction, seeming to be straining under an enormous weight. One by one, the knights gripped the handles of their blades with both hands rather than only one, yet still seemed to be struggling just to keep it up.

Sephiroth's shoulder wing shriveled and shrank to a miniscule size, and the smaller wings around his waist disappeared entirely. A pitch-black aura began to surround his entire body, shredding most of his clothes to ribbons in an instant as it emerged and tearing away much of his hair.

And, slowly, the darkness that had begun to form on the surface of Sephiroth's body began to ooze upward, as if being pulled out by force. The knights braced themselves to handle the strain as the beams from their Keyblades flickered slightly, and the shaft of light that surrounded Sephiroth began to dim. The darkness suddenly _snapped_ into a single large blob that floated above Sephiroth's head, followed shortly by a mass of dark tentacles that slowly slithered out of every pore of Sephiroth's skin.

Sephiroth fell to the ground.

And, slowly, an array of strange eyes and the massive, tooth-filled mouth that unmistakably belonged to Creiv-Rilett began to form out of the blob of pure Darkness.


	61. Chapter 56: Darkness Falls

**Author's Note:** Chapter titles have returned... but only in the drop-down box you choose chapters from, not in the chapters themselves. Mainly because I really don't feel like re-uploading 40+ chapters just so they have the titles on them...

* * *

**Chapter 56**

The three knights held their Keyblades toward the creature that was beginning to emerge from the blob of Darkness, their arms beginning to shake occasionally under the strain of keeping Creiv-Rilett sealed in the small space directly above Sephiroth.

And then, in an instant, the three lowered their blades, and the barrier around the ancient being of Darkness shattered. Creiv-Rilett grew at an incredible rate, with what was once a cannonball-sized blob of Darkness expanding into a massive, long-bodied _thing_ with an innumerable amount of tentacles coming from all over. The creature's head was somewhat reptillian in appearance, with an odd number of eyes and a mouth full of sharp, malformed teeth that grew out at strange angles and in even stranger shapes.

Creiv-Rilett may have been weakened, but it was certainly difficult to tell.

Tentacles lashed out in all directions, sending the three Warriors of Light falling to the ground before any of them could react. Sofia was entangled in the tentacles, but managed to pry them away with her Keyblade just in time to avoid a blow from one of Creiv-Rilett's enormous, clawed hands. Vasilios and Zenos rolled out of the way of another blow, firing beams of Light from their Keyblades, but the beams hardly seemed to affect the thing at all. One of Creiv-Rilett's eyes twitched, and suddenly millions of Heartless appeared from all over, some of them even growing out of Creiv-Rilett's skin and then tearing themselves free before jumping off.

Zenos spun his Keyblade in a circle before slamming it down onto one of the tentacles, and a shockwave went through the ground, destroying any Heartless it touched. The knight began to pull his Keyblade up for another strike when the tentacle lashed out, sending him flying into the air. Sofia and Vasilios both ran toward Creiv-Rilett's chest--or, at least, what _looked_ like it was probably her chest--and thrust their Keyblades in simultaneously, causing a spray of what appeared to be liquid Darkness to go flying.

The third and final knight came running back to attack along with the other two, but before he could reach them, Creiv-Rilett let out a roar and began to fly upward into the dark sky, dragging Sofia and Vasilios upward along with her. Several hundred Shadow Heartless charged at Zenos, but he just waded through the black insects as if they were nothing, knocking them aside easily before jumping into the air, following the dark creature that was apparently trying to escape the planet's atmosphere.

Just as Creiv-Rilett began to breach the tops of the clouds, Zenos caught up with her, jamming his Keyblade deep within her chest right next to the other two weapons that were already there. The three knights gripped onto their Keyblades tightly as Creiv-Rillet roared once again, the blast of sound nearly knocking them loose from their places on the thing's chest. The three continued to hold on, and Zenos went a step further, holding onto his Keyblade with one hand and pounding onto the handle with the other to force it deeper into the Darkness-formed body that it was sticking out of.

Creiv-Rilett crashed to the ground like a falling meteor, tearing up the grass and uprooting trees. The three knights quickly pulled out their Keyblades, jumping away just before the impact, but they were still knocked off of their feet by the tremors that went through the ground immediately afterward. For a few minutes, tentacles seemed to be all around the three of them, slamming into them and throwing them all over the place, leaving dents in their armor and nearly shattering parts of their helmets.

And then, suddenly, it all stopped, and Creiv-Rilett spoke... her strange, echoing voice seeming to crawl into the minds of the three warriors.

_"Gil-Neithev..."_, the voice said, _"This... is your doing...?"_

The voice was weaker than that of Gil-Neithev, which each of the knights had heard before, but it was still unnerving. It was unlike the voice of any being of Darkness they had encountered--almost seeming to _drip_ with Darkness itself. Vasilios shivered slightly as he stood up, and Sofia was visibly restraining herself from doing so as well. Zenos seemed unaffected on the outside, but even he felt the same strange fear as the others did.

"Creiv-Rilett," Zenos said, holding up his Keyblade, "Your time has long passed. You can no longer fool the followers of the Light into believing that you no longer live--we have seen to that."

_"Why..."_, the voice came again, echoing in their minds, _"Why... do you follow Gil-Neithev so willingly...?"_

"We have pledged our lives to Gil-Neithev," the tallest knight said, "If not for his Light, we would not even be alive to see this day... the day when the greatest Darkness of all is destroyed forever."

_"Do you honestly believe that _you _can destroy me? Gil-Neithev himself was unable to do so, ages ago, when we first fought,_" Creiv-Rilett said, wavering several tentacles in the air as she spoke, _"But I escaped, taking the body of a space-traveling monster I had encountered... and directing the beast to prepare the universe for my return... and then, when my first host was destroyed, I moved on to the one you call Sephiroth..."_

"Enough of this," Zenos said, "You have nothing to say that we have not heard before. In the name of Gil-Neithev, I pronounce you guilty of all crimes you have committed... greatest of all being your existence itself."

_"Fools... Darkness itself cannot truly be destroyed..."_

There was a blast of Light as a series of beams from each of the three knights' Keyblades slammed into Creiv-Rilett's body, tearing away fragments of the raw Darkness that composed her.

_"No matter what you try... all is meaningless..."_

Blow after blow from the three metallic Keyblades slammed into the creature, slicing tentacles into bits and sending liquified Darkness spewing everywhere.

_"Even if I fall..."_

Sofia's Keyblade went flying across Creiv-Rilett's skin, leaving several purplish-black gashes as it went and splattering blots of Darkness all over.

_"There will always be another..."_

Vasilios' weapon jabbed into Creiv-Rilett's face, destroying several of her many eyes instantly and causing the purplish, gel-like Darkness within to ooze out and fall to the ground.

_"Darkness... is..."_

Zenos' Keyblade slammed downward onto the head of the gigantic being of Darkness, causing the entire upper half of her face to split nearly in half and spraying the knight's armor with Darkness. A thin black mist was now beginning to rise up from all over Creiv-Rilett's skin.

_"Eternal..."_

The three knights raised their Keyblades into the air, then ran forward all at once. An aura of Light began to surge up around the three of them, surrounding their Keyblades in a strange glow. For a second before the three of them reached Creiv-Rilett, it appeared as though they were surrounded in some kind of strange white flames.

The three knights ran into--and _through_--the being of Darkness before them, tearing a gaping hole in Creiv-Rilett's center and leaving a glowing trail behind them on the ground. The white flames and bright glow slowly dimmed from their bodies... and then there was a shockwave like none the knights had ever felt before, sending all three of them crashing into the ground, leaving three trails of torn-up dirt and grass in their paths.

They watched, armor partially crushed in on itself and bodies twisted from the force of the explosion, as Creiv-Rilett began to break apart into millions of small blobs of Darkness. Each blob went flying off in a different direction, evaporating into a black fog before disappearing entirely. Each of Creiv-Rilett's eyes went black before dissolving away into droplets of liquid Darkness and raining down across the area, coating each of the knights' armor in black spots and causing the grass nearby to wilt.

There was another explosion, and the knights were embedded into the ground by the blast. Their Keyblades slipped from their grasp, quietly thumping onto the ground. Creiv-Rilett was now rapidly dissolving away, sending a rain of strange, liquified Darkness all over. It was pooling along the ground, running over the three Warriors of Light just like streams of water or blood would do, before finally sinking into the land, becoming part of the World of Darkness once again.

And then came the final explosion, disentigrating Creiv-Rilett's entire being into a black-and-purple fog of Darkness that hung close to the ground for a few minutes before evaporating away.

Creiv-Rilett was no more.

Zenos, Vasilios, and Sofia, who each laid dying in the bottom of a small crater on the ground, took their final breaths before their bodies ceased to function and were surrounded by a white light, disappearing to their coffins once again to await their next ressurrection.


	62. Chapter 57: Setting Off

**Chapter 57: Setting Off**

"Okay," Roxas said, "I've got to get to the Door to Darkness, and you guys are going to be off spying on Gil-Neithev. There's only one problem..."

Since the Castle That Never Was had been moved, the Organization's supply of Gummi Ships had gone as well. It would've been possible for Vexen and Lexaeus to jump from world to world using the Dark Passage, but for Roxas and Zexion's part of the mission... they'd need some kind of a ship.

"...We don't have any ships left..."

Vexen suddenly looked up from his notes, and a very wide smile--that "I know more than _all_ of you!" grin that Vexen often had--began to spread across the old scientist's face. He stood up, walking over to the other side of his lab, and then turned toward the others again.

"Incorrect," Vexen said, pulling a hidden lever on the wall of the lab, "While all of the Gummi Ships _were_ stored in the hangar at our original base of operations... there is still one ship left."

Lexaeus' eyes suddenly widened. "You mean..."

"Yes--the ship I was working on before Radiant Garden fell," Vexen said, "Not long after we moved into this castle, I returned and salvaged what was left of the project... fortunately, the city's inhabitants had not yet begun to rebuild, so it was in the same place I left it."

"Heartless never were very interested in machines," Zexion said, "Though I _am_ a bit surprised that Maleficent and her followers didn't touch it."

"It was well hidden from those fools," Vexen continued, "A hidden door behind a hidden door. None of them would have ever suspected a trap door to be hidden in a shower."

"I'll admit I wouldn't," Lexaeus said, nodding slightly.

"So," Roxas said, "I guess we'll need the ship to find where the Door is, so I guess Zexion and I..."

"No, we'll all take the ship," Vexen said, "You and Zexion will depart at the Door to Darkness and unlock it... Lexaeus and I will park the ship on a relatively safe world, and when your mission is complete you will travel to our location using the Dark Passage."

"But... how're we going to know where you are?"

"It's simple," Vexen said, reaching into his pockets and pulling out four small watch-like devices, "These communicators I made will allow you to ask us yourselves. As long as you remain within the same World as Lexaeus and I, those will keep a clear line of communication open, so there shouldn't be any problems finding us."

Vexen motioned for the other Nobodies to follow him, and the three walked across the room to where he was standing. The door leading to his spaceship was now open, with a long flight of stairs leading up further and further away from Castle Oblivion's basement floors.

"The ship is located in a sealed cave not far from here," Vexen said, "However, it will be a while before we reach that place. I suggest you all test out your communicators during the time you have... we don't want any of us to be unable to contact the rest, no matter what happens."

The older man walked along the stairs for several minutes before quietly speaking once again.

"We made that mistake once before... but never again."

* * *

Xehanort and Riku were peacefully eating lunch around one of the mansion's large tables, with several Heartless chowing down some of the extra food, when suddenly the older of the two men jerked upright in his seat, sweating and looking onward with wide eyes.

"What's going on?", Riku asked, noticing Xehanort's sudden change, "Is it--"

"No," Xehanort said, still staring forward, "Not Gil-Neithev, but..."

And then Riku felt it as well--an overflowing of Darkness, as if a dam holding millions of gallons of it in had suddenly burst. The World of Darkness was always saturated with the Dark, but never like _this_--this new Darkness was completely overwhelming.

"What... was _that?!_"

"The death of a powerful force of Darkness... a being on the same level of Gil-Neithev, if my senses do not decieve me..."

"Is that... is that even _possible?_"

"Yes... long ago, there was not only Gil-Neithev, but three equally-powerful beings," Xehanort began to say, finally calming down a bit. The effects of the sudden surge of Darkness were beginning to fade; the stunned silence was broken.

"Gil-Neithev was one, a being saturated with Light," he continued, "But there were two more--Sen-Knaida, a being of Twilight, and Creiv-Rilett, a being of Darkness... the two were mortal enemies of Gil-Neithev, but somehow when the three fought, only Gil-Neithev came out alive."

"I do not know the specifics... but I do know that a Darkness like that could have only come from Creiv-Rilett."

"So... what just _happened?_", Riku asked, "Did Creiv-Rilett do something, or--"

"Only if you consider _death_ 'doing something,'" Xehanort interrupted, "A surge of Darkness like that would be impossible, even for Creiv-Rilett, unless it was the final release of all forces that occurs with the death of such a being... she may have survived that ancient battle somehow, but this time... it was not possible for her to escape."

Xehanort closed his eyes, rubbing his forehead with both hands as if trying to help soothe a headache. Several minutes passed, and Riku noticed that he too was beginning to get a minor headache as well--there was simply too much Darkness in the area.

"It's beginning to fade," Xehanort said, "Soon the excess Darkness will be absorbed into the world, and distributed evenly as always, some leaving through the door to the Twilight World and some drifting within this world. It's just taking a bit longer, thanks to that brat and his Keyblade..."

"Wait... are you talking about..."

"Yes, by 'that brat' I meant Sora," Xehanort said, opening his eyes again, "His sealing of the Door to Darkness has disrupted the balance of the three Worlds. When too much Darkness builds within this world, it leaves through the Doors and heads to the other two--Light is the same way, shuttling from the World of Light to this world and the Twilight World as well."

"But when one of the doors is closed up..."

"Yes," Xehanort continued, "When a door is shut and locked, nothing can come in or out. Light is overflowing in that World, and Darkness in this one--and I suspect that an imbalance in the two forces has led to both spilling into the Twilight World at an increased rate."

Riku stood up from his seat, putting down his fork (with a bit of waffle still stuck to it) and walking over to the window. Somewhere on the horizon, there was a strange black cloud still rising, slowly disappearing--and beneath it, on the ground, several patches of grass that seemed to be dead or torn out.

"Xehanort... there's... there's somebody out there."

Xehanort immediately put his own fork (which had an entire waffle, with a small bite out of one side, impaled onto it) down as well, and rushed over toward the window, pushing Riku aside slightly to get a better look. Sure enough, there was a body of some sort lying in the middle of one of the larger craters, surrounded by dead-looking grass and the strange fog of Darkness.

"Hmm... very strange," Xehanort said, "That area seems to be the site where Creiv-Rilett was killed... but I cannot say who that body in the crater belongs to."

"How about we go look?", Riku said, putting on his coat and hat. Xehanort nodded, grabbing his fork and munching on the last remaining waffle before finally heading off toward the front door of the mansion.


	63. Chapter 58: Strangers?

**Author's Note:** Mysterious Geometric Shape Man returns! Heh heh.

* * *

**Chapter 58**

"So... who do you suppose he is?", Xehanort said, looking down at the crumpled body lying on the ground in the middle of the crater, "Or who he _was..._ even at this distance, I cannot tell if he is alive or dead."

Riku kneeled down in front of the crater, brushing away some of the dead grass and blobs of leftover Darkness that littered the ground, and peeked over at the body to get a better look. Whoever-it-was looked somewhat familiar--like he was someone Riku had heard about before.

"I don't know," Riku said, standing back up after a minute or so of looking, "He looks kinda familiar, but... the guy Sora mentioned had a much bigger wing, and longer hair."

"Whoever he is, it looks as if he has a bit of my tribe's blood in him," Xehanort said, "Though a bit more diluted than yours, I would say. Eyes like that certainly aren't from my tribe's side of his family history."

"Wait... he opened his eyes?"

"Yes, just for a second," Xehanort said, "It was probably too quick for you to notice, but his eyes _have_ been moving around a bit since we arrived. It seems he's still alive... though not by much."

The two silver-haired men stood and stared at the third, lying wounded at the bottom of the strange crater, with small pools of liquid Darkness still soaking into the ground all around him. For a second, Sephiroth's eyes flickered open again--but then they fell shut again. The once-great warrior was now unable to even gather enough strength to even keep his eyes open.

"There it is again," Riku said, "His eyes looked like they were trying to force themselves open for a second... I saw it."

The younger boy stared down into the crater for a few more minutes, watching Sephiroth's eyes occasionally open slightly before quickly closing. And then, in an instant, Riku had hopped down into the crater and was heading toward him.

"Xehanort... he's still alive, right?", Riku asked, looking back up toward the older man who waited back at the top of the crater. Xehanort nodded slightly, crossing his arms and watching. What was Riku planning?

"Do you think... maybe we could save him?", Riku asked, attempting to lift the wounded body without causing any more damage, "I mean, if we hurry... it might not be too late."

"Hmm..."

Xehanort closed his eyes for a second, apparently thinking about something. Another minute passed, and then Xehanort's eyes opened once again, looking down toward Riku.

"I suppose we could try," Xehanort said, levitating down into the crater and helping Riku lift the wounded man, "If nothing else, this will be a good opportunity to teach you a new way to use the Darkness... a way to heal."

* * *

The spaceship hidden in the sealed cave was very different from the ones Roxas was used to seeing. For one thing, there was no sign of the Organization's universally-recognizable symbol anywhere on it. But there was another, even bigger and more obvious difference--it was _metal._ While Gummi Ships had the appearance of metal, and sometimes even felt like metal depending on how they were set up, this ship actually _was_ made of metal. No strange, half-rubbery blocks of _something_ were involved.

And Vexen was extremely proud of his work--it was the first non-Gummi-based spacecraft built by a Radiant Garden native, and possibly even the _only_ one. Sure, the base for the ship's functions came from the elven spaceships piloted by Dilan and Braig years before, but those were only used as basic guidelines--Vexen had done all the real work himself.

"There's plenty of room for everyone inside," Vexen said, opening the doors to the ship before climbing into the pilot's seat himself, "So please, go ahead and climb on in."

And everyone did. Lexaeus got on first, since he was the largest by far and would take up more space than anyone else. He sat in the seat next to Vexen, closing the door after him. Roxas and Zexion came in shortly afterward, sitting in two of the five seats in the back of the ship. Apparently, the ship had been built with Ansem and his apprentices in mind--there were exactly seven seats, and their sizes and positioning seemed to match them. The pilot's seat was exactly the right size for Vexen (or Even), while the seat immediately to the right of it was larger, probably built for Ansem but just barely large enough for Lexaeus as well. Of the back seats, there was one very small one (about the right size for Zexion) and several others of varying size. Roxas took the largest of the seats, though it seemed that it was designed someone much bigger.

Finally, once everyone was strapped in and the doors were sealed, the ship took off. For a second it seemed that it would smash through the ceiling of the cave, but then Vexen opened a portal to the Dark Passage and carefully maneuvered the vehicle through that instead. After a few seconds of flying through the strange, gray void beyond the portal, another one opened, and the ship was now somewhere in deep space.

"We've arrived in the World of Light safely," Vexen said, tapping away at the ship's computer for a second, "Several thousand miles from the nearest inhabited world, but I suppose that won't be a problem considering where we're headed first."

"Yeah... the Door to Darkness," Roxas said, looking out the ship's front window and seeing the stars and various other heavenly bodies all around. There was a world visible in the distance, though he couldn't tell which one it was.

"Precisely," Vexen said, "It may take a few minutes to arrive there, but we should be able to locate it without much trouble."

The old scientist continued to type away at the computer's keyboard, apparently trying to lock on to the location of the Door that Roxas sought to reopen. A few minutes passed, and there was a "ding!" sound from the computer--and a small icon that resembled a glowing door appeared on the ship's map.

"Ah, right over there," Vexen said, turning the ship around at a different angle, "It may take longer than I first thought, however. We're on the wrong side of the World entirely... but even so, we should be able to reach the Door within half an hour."

"So," Zexion said, "What do we do until then?"

"Well," Vexen said, reaching into a bag next to his seat with one hand while steering the ship wih the other, "_I_ am going to have a quick snack while we're all waiting. I suggest you do the same." He pulled a large, ripe-looking avocado out of the bag and took a bite out of it.

Lexaeus soon followed, pulling a grapefruit out of the bag and taking a bite from it without even peeling it first. Zexion's eyes widened--he was always amazed at how far Lexaeus' strength went. He doubted that anyone else could eat a grapefruit quite like _that,_ at least without hurting themselves.

Roxas dug a snack out of his bag as well, though his choice of snack food was considerably less healthy than that of the older members. He pulled out--what else?--a bar of sea-salt ice cream and rushed to eat it before it melted all over the place.

And Zexion, having forgotten to bring any food of his own, ended up having to bum some ice cream off of Roxas, though sea-salt ice cream wasn't exactly his favorite food. It was still much better than sitting there and being hungry the whole time, however, so he ate it anyway.

Nobody ever suspected that their snack break was soon to be interrupted.

Vexen nearly dropped his avocado as the ship lurched to a stop. They could see the Door to Darkness, off in the distance, but the ship refused to move, no matter what the scientist did. He attempted to override whatever had stopped the ship's controls from working, but according to the computer, nothing was wrong.

And then, the area between the front seats and the back seats was illuminated with an odd, silvery light as a single hexagon shape appeared in midair.

The hexagon spun toward the ground, glowing and shifting sizes slightly as it went, before finally reaching the floor and flattening out. The silvery glow became brighter and bluer as a vaguely-humanoid shape emerged from within the hexagon, rising up for several seconds before finally stopping and standing there, easily taller than anyone on board except for Lexaeus.

"You again?", Roxas said, undoing his seatbelts and standing up to face the mysterious, glowing figure, "What do you want now? I already rejoined the Organization, and we're about to--"

"I cannot allow you to pilot this ship to the Door," the figure's voice said, interrupting Roxas, "One may only approach the Door on foot, by venturing through the zone of Darkness that lies before it."

"We're floating in outer space, in case you haven't noticed," Zexion said, also removing his straps and standing up, "You cannot _walk_ somewhere if there is nothing to walk on."

The figure nodded slightly, then held out one hand to the side. A glowing hexagon appeared in midair, just like what had happened when Roxas first encountered the strange being, and an image of what appeared to be a volcano, surrounded by an area of endless Darkness, appeared.

"You will find that, on this dark path, you will have no need of anything to walk on," the figure said, pointing to the image within the hexagon, "This is a strange place indeed... a warped place, where the laws of physics that you have become used to may not apply."

The figure waved its hand once again, and the image within the hexagon changed. The volcano was still visible, but it looked different somehow--as if they were seeing it through a different kind of light, a kind that their eyes couldn't see normally.

And there was something else they hadn't seen in the image before--_hearts._ Thousands--if not millions--of them. Every few seconds that passed, another of the normally-invisible hearts would suddenly pop into existence, and shortly afterward several would drift upward before zipping off at incredible speeds, glowing from the tiny amounts of both Darkness and Light within. And then the figure spoke again.

"It is the birthplace of hearts, a place that has long been forgotten. A place without a name."

And once again, the image changed. It was back to normal--the hearts were now invisible, the volcano sitting alone in the middle of the dark void around it. There was a dim greenish glow from somewhere deep within it, but that was all. The Organization members could only sit (or stand) and stare into the hexagon's image in shock.

"Y-you mean...", Roxas stuttered.

"This place...", Vexen said, "It... it was what was..."

Nobody could quite get out what they really wanted to say. So the strange figure, seemingly reading their minds, did it for them.

"Yes... legends of this place, the birthplace of hearts, were once known to the Worlds," the figure said, "But over the years, these legends became entangled with others. The importance of this place was forgotten--its legend was mixed with that of Kingdom Hearts, and that gave rise to the foolish belief that Kingdom Hearts was the _source_ of all hearts, rather than merely a device created to be their final destination..."

"And the Door to Darkness... legends of the Door were mixed in as well?", Lexaeus asked, speaking up for the first time.

"Correct," the figure answered, "The World of Light's residents had no idea that the Door was nothing more than a path to another World... tales of that Door were added to the previously-existing myths as well, to the point where some fools even believed the door itself to _be_ Kingdom Hearts..."

The figured waved an arm again, crossing its arms as the glowing hexagon faded away and vanished. The entire ship was silent for a minute... until the silence was broken by the sound of a blob of melted sea-salt ice cream falling to the floor in front of Roxas and splattering everywhere.

"Whoops!", Roxas laughed in between licks as he hurried to finish the ice cream before even more melted, "Sorry about that... I guess I wasn't really paying attention to my food..."

The figure almost seemed as if it were about to laugh as well, but just for a second. It seemed to catch itself, apparently not quite willing to let others see it laugh.

"I see," the figure said, "Go, then. Finish what is left of your ice cream... when you are done, your journey to the Door will begin."

And then, the strange figure began to fade away, just like the last time, breaking up into various small, glowing geometric shapes and eventually vanishing entirely.


	64. Chapter 59: A Letter

**Chapter 59**

As Roxas and Zexion both finished their ice cream, the ship suddenly unfroze, and Vexen found that the controls worked once again. The old man began to pilot the ship in the direction of the Door to Darkness, when suddenly the ship froze once again. A silvery-blue flash filled the ship for a second, and the mysterious figure was standing there once again.

"Roxas!", the figure said, looking in Roxas' direction, "And Zexion, as well... are you ready to begin your journey?"

Roxas stood up and nodded, summoning his two Keyblades and inserting them into the straps across his back. Zexion stood up as well, though he made no effort to summon his weapon. He would wait until it was absolutely necessary, as always.

"We're ready to go," Zexion said, taking a step toward the strange figure, "I suppose you're going to transport us there somehow?"

"Correct," the figure said, waving its hands for several seconds. There was another flash, and a series of glowing hexagons began to drift upward from the floor of the ship, surrounding both Zexion and Roxas. The hexagons kept coming up from the floor, faster and faster, until finally they appeared as nothing more than a blur. Another flash, and the hexagons--as well as the two Nobodies within them--had disappeared.

And then, before Vexen or Lexaeus could ask what was going on, the mysterious figure disappeared as well, filling the ship with a cloud of small, glowing shapes for a second before vanishing. The ships controls unfroze once again, and Vexen immediately began pressing buttons on the control panel.

"Well, it looks like it's time to begin our part of the mission as well," Vexen said, messing with the controls for a second. The ship began to turn around, heading in the opposite direction from the Door to Darkness. Lexaeus nodded, and then went back to eating the rest of his grapefruit.

* * *

Roxas and Zexion were surrounded by odd, silvery energy for several seconds, and they felt as if they were moving very quickly through _something._ Another few seconds passed, and the silvery-blue light around them began to fade. They could now see their surroundings...

...though that didn't really tell them much. Everything around them was a black void, though there were stars visible in the distance. Some sort of black fog seemed to be floating around them, and the two immediately recognized it as some form of Darkness. It was _everywhere,_ so much in some places that the stars in the distance seemed to vanish.

The second thing the two noticed was how, despite the fact that there was nothing solid anywhere around them, they had no problem standing. It looked as if the two were floating in the middle of space, with their feet somehow finding some invisible platform to step on--but they could tell nothing was there. Roxas took a step forward, and nothing seemed unusual. Then, he made a motion as if jumping--but instead of pushing upward, he tried to force himself down.

It worked. Roxas went drifting downward through what appeared to be empty space, stopping suddenly as he quit pushing downward and stood still once again. Zexion began to walk forward, and then suddenly dove forward, flying through the void with his cloak seeming to flap behind him in a wind that wasn't really there. Roxas soon followed, doing flips and speeding around through the air.

"Well, I guess that answers that question," Roxas said, referring to their earlier concerns that moving about in empty space would be impossible. Zexion nodded, and then flew forward. For the first time in his life, Zexion was able to levitate just like any other member of the Organization--he was no longer the odd one out. Then again, with Michiko and Otonashi still new to the whole Nobody business, he probably wasn't the only one who couldn't levitate anymore--but that didn't change anything. He was still amazed at the fact that floating through the air was possible for him.

You'd think that drifting about in a giant black void with no end in sight would be scary, or at least a little unnerving, but the two young Nobodies actually found it to be more _fun_ than anything else.

* * *

Kairi paced throughout the halls, watching the city outside carefully. The Underground rebels had been a bit more active than usual lately--several Keyblades had been stolen from the guards, and books containing the laws of Gil-Neithev had disappeared as well. Sometimes, they had not even bothered to clean up after destroying the books--a pile of ashes, with flecks of torn-up and singed paper still scattered among them, was a common sight in the alleys behind the church these days.

But that would not keep up for long. Soon, the Shin'an would discover all of the entrances to their underground base--and then, the entire horde of them would be destroyed in one massive attack. It would not be long before that day came--the Shin'an combed the city at night, when nobody was awake, examining every inch of their houses for the secret doors that almost certainly lead to passages underneath the city.

No, the Underground was no longer a problem... all Kairi had to do in order to end their resistance was give the orders, and thousands of Shin'an would be upon them. Lately, however, there was another problem.

_Someone,_ or something, had been sneaking about the city, moving quickly enough to avoid being seen but occasionally being heard or otherwise noticed--if only for a second. Whoever the unwelcome visitor was, they were aware of the Shin'an presence--none of the Shin'an had spotted them.

Today, however, was going to be the exception. Kairi heard the familiar sound of something zipping around outside at high speeds, nearing the windows, stopping and hovering in midair for a second...

Their unwelcome visitor was floating in the air just outside the bedroom, peeking in and looking around. Kairi was too far away to see anything from that distance, but Gil-Neithev's vision went well beyond the range of the young Queen's eyes--the little, blue-skinned visitor was now perfectly visible.

There was a sound of paper flipping together for a few seconds, and then of one piece flapping down onto a wooden surface. The little blue man had placed a scroll of some sort, apparently a letter, on the table next to Sora's bed, where he was currently asleep.

Kairi waited just around the corner of the next hallway, watching through Gil-Neithev's expanded vision and waiting for the letter to be left alone in the room with the sleeping King. Several minutes passed and, apparently convinced that Sora would be the first to see it, Hermes went flying off in another direction--likely leaving the world entirely.

And, as the messenger-god disappeared in the distance, Kairi slowly and carefully walked into the room and picked up the scroll. She smiled, and for once the look in her eyes and that on her face seemed to match up perfectly. Her eyes began to glow slightly as she took a step back into the hall and began to open the scroll.

"Ah... a letter from Mt. Olympus," she said to herself, "Warning their favorite little Keyblade Master about the next threat to the worlds... hmm."

She took a few more steps down the hall, continuing to read the scroll to herself and occasionally giggling a little. In reality, the letter to Sora was a very serious piece of writing--even going so far as to detail exactly what will happen if Gil-Neithev's plans are allowed to continue. But to Kairi (or, more accurately, to the monster inside of her), it was absolutely hillarious.

"Such a nice little letter," she said, rolling the scroll back up carefully, "A pity Sora will never get a chance to read it himself..."

"Get a chance to read _what?_"

As it turned out, there were many disadvantages to possessing a young girl with no exceptional powers of her own--the largest of which was the fact that the senses of the human body were easily distracted. While reading over the scroll herself, Kairi had not heard the sounds of Sora awakening, yawning and stretching before getting up out of his bed and taking a few steps into the next hallway.

"Oh, it's nothing important," Kairi said, rolling the rest of the scroll up quickly, "Some people heard too many of the rumors going around, and a got a little paranoid about it... nothing really worth reading, unless you're interested in conspiracy theories."

"That scroll... it looks like it's from Olympus," Sora said, taking another step toward Kairi, "I know I've seen those symbols on the seal before--just let me see it for a second."

Kairi's eyes flickered as she fiddled with the scroll. There was no other choice--it would be impossible to dispose of Sora now, without revealing that Kairi had been possessed by Gil-Neithev the whole time. She had to let Sora read the scroll.

"Well... I know it's probably not important, but... I want to see it."

Sora held out one hand toward Kairi, expecting her to hand over the scroll. After all, why would she need to hide it from him? Why would she hide _anything_ from him...?

A few seconds passed, but Kairi finally held out the scroll toward her husband, setting it down into his open hand. Sora began to unroll the scroll, reading the first few words as he went, and Kairi's eyes began to flicker. He gasped as he kept reading. Kairi's eyes were now glowing brightly, occasionally shifting to strange, unnatural colors as well.

Sora looked up toward his wife in shock--the Shin'an were a threat to the worlds!? Gil-Neithev was controlling them, and planned to destroy everything in a flood of Light? He couldn't believe it, but... the gods themselves wouldn't lie to him about something so important. But Kairi wouldn't lie to him either... would she? Now Sora wasn't sure quite what to think.

Before he could think of anything else, however, his field of vision blurred and became distorted. He struggled to stand, taking a small step toward Kairi and nearly dropping the scroll, but then there was an incredible flash of light, apparently emanating from Kairi's body. He froze in place, eyes wide and glazed-over. A horrible burning sensation covered his entire body, and if he were able to look down at his own hands, he would see sparks and particles of yellow-white energy crackling around him.

Sora's thoughts went blank as another flash of light filled the room. Another flash. More of the strange sparks flooded the room, crackling around him and preventing even the _thought_ of movement.

And for just a second, one last leftover of the person Sora used to be--the person he was _supposed_ to be--broke through, silently mouthing a short sentence to Kairi.

_"Kairi... how could you... I--"_

He was cut off before another word could come out by another flash of light, and his mouth froze in place along with the rest of his body. The sparks began to swarm all over him, and for a second he was completely illuminated by their strange light... and then the sparks slowly began to dive into him. If Sora could have felt anything at this point, he would almost certainly have fallen over from the pain. It would have felt like he was being burned alive from within--and, in a way, a large part of him _was._

Another flash of light, filling the entire room, and suddenly the sparks and odd lights faded. Sora fell unconscious onto the floor, but Kairi caught him and laid him down on his bed softly, tucking him under the covers before snatching the scroll away from him and walking away.

And as she dissolved the scroll into ashes with a quick blast of Light, a few small tears began to pool in the corners of her eyes, slowly trickling down her face before being wiped away.

Gil-Neithev may have been smiling, but Kairi had never felt worse in her entire life.

"Sora... I'm so sorry..."

It was Kairi's voice, untainted by Gil-Neithev at a time where it seemed that such a thing was impossible.

And then, the voice changed, distorting and becoming very deep and echoed once again. Gil-Neithev finished her sentence, though certainly not with the same words that Kairi would have used.

"...but it simply had to be done."


	65. Chapter 60: Radiant Garden

**Chapter 60**

Roxas and Zexion sped throughout the dark void for what seemed like hours, though it was probably barely more than fifteen minutes. Though it was fun flying around in space without having to worry about such nasty things as gravity, suffocation, or slamming into something by accident, seeing nothing but black all around for minutes at a time got boring _fast._

But just as their boredom reached its peak, their flight was suddenly interrupted by a small explosion from somewhere beneath them. Zexion looked down immediately, noticing that a large stone platform had appeared below his feet, and floated down to stand on it. And then, gravity was back in effect.

Roxas began to fall toward the platform, catching himself using his Keyblades. He pulled the two weapons out of the rock a few seconds later, after he had managed to pull himself back onto his feet after the sudden burst of gravity. He turned toward Zexion to ask him something, but before he could say a word, he was interrupted once again.

Heartless of all kinds had appeared all around them, covering much of the platform. Several Neoshadows leapt toward Roxas, but he ducked low to the ground and then jumped up, ending up immediately behind the group of Heartless as they landed and smashing them with his two Keyblades. The Heartless immediately fell over and exploded in a cloud of black smoke, but there were still many more left.

"So," Roxas said to Zexion, while fighting back the swarm of Heartless, "Are you going to fight these things, or what?"

Zexion nodded slightly, then held out his hand for a second. Energy began to well up around it, creating a slight purple glow.

But he was not summoning his weapon--no, that was reserved for only the most extreme circumstances, and mere Heartless were certainly _not_ "extreme" enough. Instead, his hand was surrounded by a bright purplish glow which expanded and then shifted shape for several seconds, lengthening and twisting and slowly taking the form of a very familiar weapon.

Zexion's hand flashed for a second, and then an imitation of one of Roxas' two Keyblades appeared in the center of the aura of purple energy. The colors were washed-out and purple-hued, and the details of the weapon were a bit less pronounced than those of the real ones, but otherwise it was difficult to tell the difference.

And then, the two Nobodies jumped off in different directions, slashing away at Heartless left and right while carefully making sure that they didn't fall off of the small platform that floated in the middle of space. Heartless of all types fell quickly; Shadows and Neoshadows barely surviving a single blow, and even the stronger varieties going down without much trouble. Though Zexion wasn't an excellent fighter, he was still more than a match for any plain Heartless--he hadn't been in an actual fight for years, yet he was still doing a good job at keeping up with Roxas.

Before long, the entire bunch of Heartless was gone--and a few seconds later, the stone platform disappeared as well. The two Nobodies fell through space for a second, and then gravity seemed to lose its grip once again, allowing them to drift about freely. Roxas put his Keyblades back into their straps, and Zexion dispelled his copied weapon as well, and then the two of them headed off toward the Door once again.

* * *

Almost immediately after they emerged from their ship, Vexen and Lexaeus were under attack.

Apparently, Radiant Garden had grown into a very, very paranoid world since the last time the two of them had visited--so far, even, that nobody there seemed to recognize the two Nobodies from their time as Ansem's apprentices, and instead saw a pair of long, black Organization XIII cloaks rather than the people within them.

"Organization XIII!?", one of the attackers yelled, sounding halfway between anger and confusion, "But... you're supposed to be _dead!_"

A rather large shuriken whizzed past Vexen's head, bouncing off of the ship behind him and jabbing into the ground. A second soon followed, and Vexen jumped out of the way to avoid it, causing the pointy object to deflect off of the ship's hull and back at the young woman who had thrown it.

"Yuffie, watch out!"

The ninja noticed just in time, spinning around just as the shuriken came flying back in her direction and catching it. She was about to throw it again when she found her arm very difficult to move, thanks to the coating of ice that now encased it.

"Hey! What was--"

She was pinned to the ground before she could finish. The dirt itself had formed itself into a hand-like shape, grabbing Yuffie and slamming her down so hard that she didn't have any time to react. The dirt then lost its hand shape, becoming something more like a very large shackle that kept its prisoner from moving.

"Now, if you stop _attacking_ us for a second," Vexen said, "Then perhaps we will be able to explain why--"

He was interrupted when a fireball came speeding toward him. It was too fast to avoid--he raised his hands and began to summon his shield as it approached, and braced himself...

But the hit never came. Vexen opened his eyes and lowered his shield to see Lexaeus standing in front of him, gripping the fireball with his bare hands as if it were a solid object. The large man let go of the flaming orb for a second, then clapped his hands into it suddenly, extinguishing the fire immediately.

"Nobodies," Leon said, sounding almost disgusted (though, really, it was hard to tell--Leon never did show a whole lot of emotion in his voice), "What are _you_ doing here?"

"In case you weren't paying attention," Vexen said, walking over to Leon quickly, "We were _about_ to explain everything, before you had to go and interrupt us _again._"

Vexen then backhanded the younger man with his shield hand, smashing the heavy weapon into Leon's face and sending him reeling backwards. Vexen didn't _look_ particularly strong, but if you got him angry enough... well, Leon certainly found out the hard way, to say the least.

"Now," Vexen said, "If any more of your little friends are hiding out in the cliffs, waiting to ambush us... I would highly appreciate it if you would tell the lot of them to stay out of this."

Leon made quick hand-signals to several spots in the cliffs nearby, clutching his bloody nose with his other hand as he did. One by one, several other Radiant Garden residents emerged from their hiding spots in the cliffs. An older, blonde-haired man, who seemed to be unarmed, came first, holding his hands up in the air in surrender and staying a safe distance away from the two Nobodies. Three small, winged humanoids buzzed out of the three matching holes in the cliff wall that they had been hiding in, fluttering in the air behind Leon's head. And finally, a girl with brown hair that curled up at the ends, carrying some kind of odd-looking nunchucks, peeked out from behind a boulder before carefully walking out into the open, joining Aerith (who was already standing a short distance away from the scene of the fight.)

Vexen and Lexaeus looked the entire group over for a second, and then Lexaeus snapped his fingers once, causing the dirt trap that held Yuffie to crumble and free the young ninja once again. She immediately jumped to her feet, gasping for breath.

"Now," Vexen said, dematerializing his shield, "We will tell you the whole story, Leon. Everyone pay attention, now--I'll only say this once."

"Wait," Leon said, stopping the older man before he could begin, "How do you know my name?"

"It's simple," Vexen said, "Your father was in several of my classes when he was still in school. And furthermore, I met _you_ once or twice as well--though you were but a child then." Leon suddenly had a look of shock on his face--the first obvious emotion that anyone had managed to get out of him that whole day--as he remembered his elementary-school years, and the field trips to Ansem the Wise's research station...

He remembered the long-haired, avocado-eating scientist that was always there. How he usually wore a pair of safety goggles, even when they weren't required for any of the experiments he was working on. How he always carried around a notebook, occasionally whipping it open and writing something down spontaneously, surprising everyone around him.

He remembered how the old scientist had once stopped what he was doing to explain the health benefits of the avocado to a certain group of young children who were visiting the lab on a field trip. How he had taken out a single ripe avocado, carefully sliced it into sections, removed the pit, and handed the slices out to the entire class within a matter of seconds, as if he had been doing it all his life.

_"Even,"_ Leon thought, _"Professor Even Rimewind, one of Ansem's assistants. But... it can't be... he disappeared just before the Heartless attacks..."_

"As you can see," Vexen said, "This old professor didn't die during that week, long ago, when Heartless swarmed the city... he only became a Nobody."

"As if that's any better," Cid said, speaking up for the first time. Vexen turned and glared at him, and Cid shut up immediately out of fear of being shield-backhanded like Leon was--or worse, frozen in ice. The three little fairies silently ducked even lower behind Leon, realizing that it would take a whole lot less ice to freeze _them_ than it would any of the others.

Everyone calmed down soon after Vexen did, and the entire group sat down on the odd, blue-tinted ground that made up much of Radiant Garden's world. Once everyone was seated, Lexaeus spoke up.

"Now, if there will be no more interruptions," he said, looking over the whole crowd, "It is time for us to tell you our story."


	66. Chapter 61: Time is Running Out

**Chapter 61**

Roxas and Zexion flew throughout the darkness for what seemed like at least an hour before finally, something changed. There was something else besides the seemingly-infinite void around them...

It was that strange volcano they had seen in the hexagon's images earlier, but it looked _much_ larger up close. Well, "up close" wasn't exactly the word for it--they were still high above it, only able to see it at all thanks to the greenish glow coming from within. It looked almost as if it would have been hidden at the bottom of a deep hole in the ground, if there had been ground there at all.

They stood in midair for a few minutes, just staring down at the strange volcano at the bottom of the "pit" in the darkness in front of them. But it was not just empty space, not just a random volcano--it was there for a reason. The mysterious figure who had appeared to them on the ship had said that it was the true birthplace of all hearts... and Zexion, at least, certainly believed him now.

The place gave Zexion the same feeling that standing in front of Kingdom Hearts, back in the days when it still existed, had given him--that finally having a heart of his own was possible, that the day when he would become complete was close. He hadn't thought of the Organization's quest to become complete again very much lately, as the whole business with Gil-Neithev took up all of their time... but now, it was just about all he could think about.

But before either of them could think of (or _do_) much of anything else, they felt a strange force grabbing onto them and holding them back, preventing them from going forward... and slowly dragging them down toward the volcano.

"What's going on!?", Roxas said, "I... I can't move!"

"It seems we're being pulled downward by... _something,_" Zexion said, looking all around for the source of the odd smell that had suddenly flooded his senses. It wasn't long before he pinpointed the smell's location.

"And whatever it is, it's down there... inside that volcano."

* * *

It took a very, _very_ long time, but Vexen and Lexaeus had finally managed to convince the residents of Radiant Garden that the two of them were _not_ a threat. Much of their argument revolved around convincing the ignorant masses that Even and Elaeus still existed, that they had not magically grown entirely different personalities just from losing their hearts, and that they were not completely different people just because they had changed their names. They told the group about how the Organization's old renaming policy worked, and about how intelligent Nobodies kept their memories from their "past lives" so long as their Heartless was not also intelligent.

Explaining the relative intelligence levels of different Nobodies and Heartless took a while--the people of Radiant Garden had somehow gotten the idea that _all_ Nobodies were intelligent, and _all_ Heartless were mindless--but eventually it seemed to sink in.

The two hadn't even bothered to try convincing the group that Organization XIII was never, in any way, a "threat to the worlds." They had all had that idea thoroughly pounded into their heads, probably with more than a little help from Sora. There were other things that they never brought up, as well--convincing these people of a few things was one thing, but trying to get someone to change their entire view of the world (however wrong it may be) never works very well.

And finally, Vexen and Lexaeus got around to explaining what was going on, and why they had to come to the World of Light in the first place.

"Gil-Neithev," Vexen said, "An ancient being who intends to destroy all that exists. The reason why your World consists of an endless variety of small planets, rather than a single large one."

"You mean... the legend is true?", Leon asked, remembering a story that all of them had heard at least a few times in their childhood. About how their world was once part of a much larger one--but it was split, nearly destroyed, only just barely surviving.

"Somewhat," Lexaeus said, "Overall, the legend you have heard is little more than a myth. However, there is a fragment of truth within that--the fact that your world was, indeed, part of a larger planet at one time."

Cid took a step toward the two Organization members, and spoke up. "So this 'Gil-Neithev' did all that, huh... how come we've never heard of any of this crap?"

"Gil-Neithev is not a mindless engine of destruction," Vexen answered, "He has altered history over time, removing all evidence of his own existence from the writings of the people of each world. Few records of the ancient war against Gil-Neithev and his followers still remain--and many of those that do have been altered to pin the blame elsewhere. We were lucky to obtain a set of the original scrolls, untouched by Gil-Neithev's influence."

"And that story you have been told," Lexaeus said, "The myth explaining the splitting of the worlds--that is a fine example of history being altered. It was not Darkness that splintered the World of Light... it was Gil-Neithev."

It took a little while longer for everyone to accept this, but it wasn't nearly as much of a struggle as convincing them that Vexen and Lexaeus meant them no harm. Everything matched up with what they had seen--the mysterious disappearances, even in the absence of Heartless; the glowing footprints; the strange shrieks and sounds of insects crawling... Gil-Neithev and the Shin'an had been there all along, but nobody ever suspected them--they never even knew they existed!

"Now, if you don't mind," Vexen said, "We have a job to do. There have been disappearances in this city lately, have there not?"

"That's right," Leon answered, "First, it was a few members of the McDuck family... and the Moogles. And now... every day, it seems like more and more people are gone."

"And that is Gil-Neithev's doing, no doubt," Lexaeus said, crossing his arms. "We're here to clear the Shin'an from as many worlds as we can."

"As well as investigating Gil-Neithev's forces," Vexen continued, "Figuring out his plans, finding out where his stronghold is located... and then, once our allies have finished their side of the mission... attacking."

* * *

Riku and Xehanort stood on opposite sides of a spare bed, which the heavily wounded Sephiroth had been carefully placed ontop of. The silver-haired man had only just barely survived whatever it was that had happened to him--his wing was broken, thanks to a nasty stab wound, and had apparently shriveled to a size just a bit larger than one of his hands. The rest of his body was similarly battered--cuts and scrapes everywhere, a visibly broken nose, and probably more than a few other breaks that they hadn't yet noticed.

"He's beat up pretty bad," Riku said, looking over the wounded man once again, "But you said we could probably help him recover... right?"

"Yes," Xehanort said, still looking down at various wounds on Sephiroth's body, "If we act quickly, he should be able to survive this. It seems that whoever did this to him didn't bother to finish him off--he's severely beaten, but there was no attempt at a killing blow."

"Hmm... I wonder why," Riku said, looking back at the various wounds once again. Xehanort was right--there were plenty of injuries, but none of them in vital areas. Maybe a broken rib or two, but certainly not the kind of damage he would have expected. "Why go through the trouble of beating someone half to death and then just leave them there?"

Xehanort suddenly stopped paying any attention to Sephiroth, and closed his eyes, concentrating on something. This went on for several minutes, with the dark-skinned man occasionally moving his hands around as if searching for something in the air. And then, just as Riku was about to ask what was going on, his eyes snapped open.

"Creiv-Rilett..."

"What? What do you mean?"

"She was... hiding within Sephiroth all along," Xehanort said, "I can still detect the leftover Darkness surrounded him... the same Darkness that washed over me earlier, at the point of Creiv-Rilett's death."

"So that means..."

"Yes... whoever did this to Sephiroth... wasn't after _him_ at all. They were trying to _beat_ Creiv-Rilett out of him..."

"Gil-Neithev... it has to be," Riku said, clenching his fists, "Someone working for Gil-Neithev did this, I'm sure of it. Nobody else would go through so much trouble..."

Xehanort began to pace back and forth next to Sephiroth, thinking of what this meant. If Gil-Neithev's forces were strong enough to do _this,_ and to destroy Creiv-Rilett herself immediately afterward... and in the World of Darkness, no less. Time was running out.

"Gil-Neithev's growing stronger and stronger," Xehanort said, continuing to pace back and forth, "His power is rising... approaching the level it was at when I fought him myself, years ago..."

"And... if this doesn't stop soon," he continued, looking back toward Riku, "It will be the end of the world as we know it."


	67. Chapter 62: A New Alliance

**Chapter 62**

Mickey hopped from building to building in the now-rebuilt city of Radiant Garden, watching the two black-robed men walking in the streets below. He recognized the two of them from Castle Oblivion--they were two members of Organization XIII, Vexen and Lexaeus.

But they were supposed to be dead--_very_ dead, since it had been more than eleven years now since Riku had left Castle Oblivion. The King had even _seen_ Lexaeus die--so how was he still alive? He had to find out what was going on.

At first he suspected that Gil-Neithev was somehow involved, but he soon realized that that wasn't likely--Nobodies had Darkness within them as well, and from what he had seen and heard of Gil-Neithev's followers so far, they wouldn't cooperate with anyone who had even the slightest bit of Darkness.

He continued to climb across the roofs, carefully jumping to the next roof once the two men were too far away to hear him, and followed them throughout the city. They seemed to be searching for something, though it was hard to tell what. Hearts? It was certainly possible, since Kingdom Hearts no longer existed... but what did they plan on doing to get them?

Mickey stopped and thought about it for a few minutes, but he wasn't able to think of any reason why two members of the Organization would be wandering around a city in broad daylight without their weapons. So he leaped over another alley and onto the next building, and continued to follow them.

* * *

Vexen and Lexaeus walked throughout the streets of the city they had once studied the mysteries of the heart in, looking around for any sign of the Shin'an. So far, there were no signs of the glowing, Light-formed insects yet--so instead, the two Nobodies decided to see how well the city had been rebuilt to pass the time.

The entire place had been ruined when the Heartless swarmed it, but now, the city seemed to have been restored to its former glory. A few houses were missing, and others didn't look quite like the way the two remembered them, but overall it felt very familiar.

And then, Lexaeus turned toward Vexen, while still walking to avoid looking suspicious, and whispered a short warning.

"We're being followed."

"I'm well aware," Vexen said, "My hearing hasn't gotten _that_ bad, even at my age."

"Though," the old scientist continued, "I _am_ a bit surprised that whoever it is actually expects to remain unheard with those squeaky shoes..."

"Hmm... squeaky shoes... that sounds somewhat familiar."

"Indeed... it seems many of our past enemies have had a liking for loud, annoying shoes."

"No, not that," Lexaeus said, "I've heard those shoes before. Do you remember a certain small visitor we had, back when we were still researchers under Ansem?"

Vexen's eyes widened slightly, but he continued walking forward.

"That mouse King... Mickey, was it?", he said, "So _he's_ following us... very strange."

And then, suddenly, their suspicions about the identity of their "stalker" were confirmed. A black-and-red blur flew down at them from a nearby building, landing directly in front of the two and brandishing his Keyblade.

"Organization XIII... what're _you_ doing here?", he asked in a very unfriendly and generally un-Mickey-like way. It was a way of speaking that often came out when the Organization was involved.

"Hmph," Vexen said, "I suppose we could ask _you_ the same thing. Shouldn't a king be busy ruling his kingdom?"

"I'm not just a king," Mickey said, "I'm also a Keybearer... so it's my job to protect the worlds, too!"

"I suppose that's why they're in such _great_ shape lately," Vexen mocked, pointing toward Mickey's head, "You've been doing such a _wonderful_ job protecting them, after all."

Mickey frowned, and instead of saying a single word, he lashed out with his Keyblade, jumping up toward Vexen and swinging downward. The scientist just wasn't fast enough to prepare for the attack, and he was about to be hit when suddenly Mickey froze in midair.

_"What de HELL are you doin'!?",_ a familiar voice said, suddenly popping into Mickey's head once again. _"I go through all that trouble ta get yo' Keyblade powered-up and all, and you go off and try ta bust my FRIENDS in the head with it!?"_

Mickey fell to the ground and blacked out, leaving Vexen and Lexaeus standing in preparation for an attack for several seconds. But the attack never did come--the mouse's Keyblade had flashed and disappeared from his hands, and he seemed to be completely unconscious, just as if he had fallen asleep in midair.

Needless to say, Vexen and Lexaeus were both _very_ confused.

* * *

Mickey awoke to find himself lying on the stained-glass floor, with a design displaying the full ranks of the Organization (minus Xemnas). Xaldin was standing in front of him with his arms crossed, scowling and looking down at the King, tapping his foot slightly on the floor.

"Look, mouse-dude," the tall Nobody said, "I helped you out, man. I _saved your friggin' life._ And you go try ta kill the last few of my friends that _ain't_ already dead!?"

The King just looked up at him, still disoriented from suddenly falling unconscious again. He began to open his mouth to say something, but Xaldin interrupted him once again, walking around him in circles.

"Damn ungrateful little freak... what makes you think it's okay ta just go off and _kill_ somebody who ain't messin' with you or anything!?"

"Well... they were..."

"They were _what,_ foo'? _Walkin' down the damn street,_ mindin' they own damn business. Weren't gonna hurt nobody, and you just jump down from some damn building and start swingin' at 'em!"

"I thought, you know, they were going to--"

"What? Turn somebody into Heartless or some crap like that?"

"Well... yeah, that was--"

"_Damn,_ you _still_ don't get it!?"

"What do you mean? The Organization always turned people into Heartless before, and--"

"That's because _Xemnas_ told 'em to! All that crap, turnin' people inta Heartless and siccin' 'em on Sora... that was all _his_ plan. We just went along with it 'cuz he'd prob'ly _kill_ us if we didn't!"

"Well, I didn't know--"

"Well, _now ya do!_ So quit the damn 'oh no, Nobodies, gotta kill 'em all!' crap!"

And then, just as Mickey was about to stand up and ask Xaldin another question, everything began to fade out around him. He was regaining consciousness.

* * *

"He's regaining consciousness," Vexen said, looking down at the small King who was currently tied to the ground by one of Lexaeus' dirt-traps. "What should we do now?"

"Hmm... we cannot let him free just yet," Lexaeus said, "He'll only attack us again as soon as he gets the chance."

And then, a strange--but very familiar--voice popped into Lexaeus' head.

_"Don't do nothin',"_ the voice said, _"And get him outta that trap, man--you wouldn't wanna wake up and be all tied down, would ya?"_

"Xaldin?", Vexen said, apparently hearing the voice as well, "But how?"

_"I got him all straightened-out,"_ Xaldin's voice said, _"Had some crazy idea that Nobodies were all bad, or somethin' like that... but I think I got through ta 'im just now."_

"Just now... you mean... when he suddenly fell unconscious," Lexaeus said, looking down at the still-half-asleep mouse.

_"Yeah, that was me,"_ Xaldin said, _"I saved this guy's life a while ago, and got his Keyblade fixed-up so it works right and all--so if I tell 'im somethin', he's gonna believe it. You guys ain't got nothin' to worry about."_

"Not from Mickey, at least," Vexen said, watching as Lexaeus' dirt-trap receded and left Mickey lying unrestrained on the ground, slowly awakening.

_"Yeah, the Shin'an and all that mess,"_ Xaldin said, _"Speakin' of that, you guys gotta get back to clearin' those things out, y'know. And Mickey's gonna come with you from now on."_

"Yes... that _was_ what we were about to do before Mickey interrupted us," Vexen said, carefully watching the mouse as he awakened and sat up off of the ground.

"Thanks for all the help, Xaldin," Lexaeus said, apparently talking to the air immediately above where Mickey was sitting. Mickey looked around, and noticed a translucent image of Xaldin standing a few feet behind him for a second--and then, he was gone once again, leaving Mickey sitting in the street in front of the two Nobodies that, just seconds ago, he had tried to kill.

"So...", the mouse said, looking up at the two black-cloaked men, "I guess I'm coming with you from now on, then."

"Yes," Vexen said, "That was what Xaldin told us, at least. We must hurry, though--the Shin'an most certainly exist on this world already, and likely in large numbers."

Mickey nodded, and then stood up, dusting himself off. After a few seconds of looking around, he began to walk down the street, following closely behind the two Nobodies as the three of them continued their search for the Shin'an.


	68. Chapter 63: Otonashi's Powers

**Chapter 63**

"Well, we can't just _sit_ here and do _nothing,_" Michiko said, staring up at the white ceiling above her. "Everyone else is off saving the world from Gil-Neithev... we should be out there helping them!"

"You heard what Zexion said," Otonashi said, turning toward her, "We're not ready for something like that. If we went after them, we'd just end up dead."

"But shouldn't we at least be training, or _something?_"

"Hmm..."

"What? Don't you want to find out what kind of powers you have?"

"Actually, that's what I was just thinking about... everyone else in the Organization, past or present, knew how to use their powers, but--"

"Not everyone... remember?", Michiko interrupted, "Roxas never learned how to use his powers either."

Otonashi sat there silently for a few minutes, wondering why Roxas had never learned how to use his powers even though everyone else had. But Roxas, at least, had Keyblades--_two_ of them, even--to make up for it. _He_ didn't even have that--just some silly fishing-pole whip... thing.

"So you think I'll end up like that?", Otonashi asked, looking back toward the green-haired girl, "Never figuring out what kind of powers I have, and eventually just forgetting about it and just fighting with what I've got..."

"Maybe," she answered, staring at the ceiling again. And then she turned back toward him once again.

"It took _me_ almost ten years to figure out what my powers were, and I still haven't quite mastered them yet... so maybe yours is something like that too? Something that just takes a little while longer."

"Who knows..."

And then, the two of them suddenly felt a shockwave unlike anything they had ever felt before, coming at them from the depths of the castle--or maybe even lower. For a few seconds, it was difficult to even stand. Michiko was knocked off of the couch she was lying on, and Otonashi was only just barely able to hold onto his chair. And then the shaking stopped, replaced by a very odd smell. Normally, only someone like Zexion would be able to smell it--but this time, it was so strong that any Nobody could notice.

"What... was _that?_"

"I don't know," Michiko answered, pulling herself up off of the floor, "That's never happened before... at least, never when I was here..."

And somewhere deep beneath the castle, there was a sound of metal clanging against stone. First, the sounds were slow, coming only one at a time, but they quickly picked up speed.

Michiko stood up, listening to the far-off sounds. "Are those..."

"Footsteps," Otonashi whispered, "Somebody's coming..."

* * *

"He should be stable now," Xehanort said as the last few wisps of Darkness left his hands. Sephiroth, still terribly wounded but no longer in danger of dying, was lying in one of the spare beds, covered in bandages and with a slight purple glow surrounding him.

"So... I guess it's about time I learned how to heal, too," Riku said, looking first at Sephiroth and then back to Xehanort, "I guess it'll probably take a lot of practice, though... do we have the time?"

"No, I'm afraid we don't have very much time," Xehanort said, pacing back and forth beside the bed, "But that won't be a problem in this case. You likely already have the basic knowledge required--all I need to teach you is how to use it."

"What do you mean?"

"Your Dark Shield technique," Xehanort said, walking so that he was standing directly in front of Riku, "And the various small things you have used the Darkness for--concealing your appearance, or defying gravity. These powers all operate on the same principle as healing--using the Darkness to alter things without causing any harm to them."

"So to heal..."

"Yes, to heal using the Darkness... you simply focus the Darkness into your wounds, and use it to force the skin and flesh to grow back together," Xehanort said, making various hand motions as he spoke, "And of course... you must also disinfect the wound. Focus tiny amounts of Darkness onto any disease-causing organisms, and destroy them... that way, there will be no risk of infection."

"Well... that _sounds_ easy enough," Riku said. He then started looking around, first at Xehanort, then at Sephiroth, and then all around the rest of the room.

"But... there's one problem," he continued, "Who am I going to practice on? I'm not injured at all, but..."

"You will practice on Sephiroth," Xehanort said, stepping away from the bed where the silver-haired man was lying, "I healed only his most serious wounds--the ones that were an immediate threat to his life. There are still many more left."

"But what if I... you know... mess up?"

"Don't worry," Xehanort said, "If you _do_ make a mistake, I will correct it before any damage is done. However, given your past success with the Darkness... I doubt you will make very many mistakes."

* * *

The footsteps were getting closer and closer with every second that passed.

They had traveled up from the lowest basement, heading straight for the stairs the second they reached a new floor. It was now obvious that there were three different sets of footsteps--one very heavy-sounding, and two that sounded much lighter, as if the people they belonged to were nowhere near the size of the first.

The footsteps got closer. Up the stairs, onto the first floor of the castle... they were close enough now that the footsteps were not the only sound that could be heard. There was also a sound of armor clanking, chinking together slightly as whoever was inside of it walked.

And then, Michiko recognized a sound she had heard before.

"Vasilios..."

"Who?"

"One of those knights that the others mentioned," Michiko said, "I... I _killed_ him, but... he's back..."

"So that must mean... the other two sets of footsteps belong to the others..."

The door shuddered as _something_ smashed into it from the outside. Another blow came, and a massive crack appeared, nearly splitting the door in half. A heavy, armor-coated foot came smashing through, and the door shattered, falling forward into the room and revealing the three knights waiting outside, each holding a Keyblade.

"So they've left the two of you here unguarded," Sofia said, looking over the two Nobodies, "They must not care much about you. Then again, they _are_ Nobodies, so that shouldn't be much of a--"

"Shut up!", Otonashi said, summoning his weapon and taking a step toward her, "Just because we don't have hearts doesn't mean we can't feel, or care..."

"Oh, but it _does,_" Sofia continued, "Without a heart, the body is but an empty shell, not even truly existing--"

She was cut short when the bladed end of Otonashi's weapon came swinging toward her at an incredible speed, stopping hardly an inch short of the faceplate of her armor. Zenos, who was standing directly behind her, had caught the weapon in one hand before it had a chance to hit--but it was still dangerously close.

Michiko summoned her Keyblade, getting into a fighting stance as the knights began to walk into the room. The largest of the three released Otonashi's weapon, letting it fall to the floor before returning to its original length. And then, the attack began.

Three Keyblades slammed into Michiko from different angles, knocking her back and forth before she could even raise her own weapon to block. Otonashi swung his whip toward the knights, but it just bounced off of their armor harmlessly, not even leaving a scratch. Michiko regained her balance and swung her Keyblade at Vasilios' head, but it was stopped in mid-swing by Sofia's weapon. Vasilios laughed for a second before planting a hard kick in Michiko's stomach, knocking her backward into the wall.

Otonashi swung his weapon around again, attempting to entangle one of the knights' Keyblades in it and disarm them, but the attempt was cut short when Zenos suddenly appeared behind him, bashing him in the head with an elbow and sending him crashing to the ground. Michiko began to stand up again, but was knocked down by yet another Keyblade swing before she was even on her feet.

Sofia swung her Keyblade in, sharp end first. Michiko looked up just in time to see the weapon coming straight for her head...

And then, just as she flinched and closed her eyes, there was a loud, metallic _clang._

Once her ears had stopped ringing, she slowly opened her eyes, only to see what appeared to be a wall of solid steel standing in front of her, bursting up through the floor. There was a small dent in the barrier from where Sofia's Keyblade had struck, but otherwise it seemed to be unharmed.

"What in the world was..."

And then, she peeked around the corner of the metal wall. Otonashi was standing at the far end of the room, gripping onto one of the beds with one hand to support himself while holding out the other hand toward the three knights. There was a slight gray glow around his hand, but before Michiko could get a second look to determine whether she had really seen it or not, it was gone.

"Get out of here...", Otonashi said, still raising his hand toward the knights. All three of them began to laugh a little, but then quickly stopped when a gray glow surrounded the silver-haired man's hand once again. The glow flashed brightly for a second, and then another metal wall exploded upward from the floor, reaching all the way to the celing. Another wall appeared, and then another and another, surrounding the three knights and trapping them in a small space. More and more slabs of metal appeared, surrounding the box and strengthening its walls. There were sounds of metal clashing against metal from inside of the box, as well as curses in some unknown language.

And then, Otonashi fell to the floor, his hand still glowing slightly. The metal walls began to collapse in on themselves, falling and smashing down onto the three knights trapped within. Keyblades flashed through the air many times, knocking chunks of metal all across the room. And then, finally, the metal box was destroyed, collapsing into gray powder and then disappearing.

"Ha... nice trick," Vasilios said, walking over toward Otonashi, "But it'll take a hell of a lot more than _that_ to stop us."

"Indeed," Sofia said, "You kept us occupied for a bit, but it's long past time for the two of you to die. I'm surprised the Queen didn't finish _you_ off when she had the chance."

"No..."

"Hmph... enough of this," Zenos said, raising his Keyblade and walking over toward Otonashi. Michiko struggled to stand, but then fell over once again.

And then, the three knights stopped in their tracks. A strange voice echoed throughout the room, apparently speaking to the knights.

_"Sofia, Vasilios, Zenos...",_ the voice said, _"It is time for the three of you to return. _Those _Nobodies are not a problem at the moment..."_

The three knights dematerialized their Keyblades, then walked back toward the entrance of the room.

"Consider yourselves lucky," Zenos said, "Were it not for direct orders from Gil-Neithev, the two of you would have died today."

And then, with a bright flash of light, the three knights were gone.


	69. Chapter 64: Chernabog

**Chapter 64**

"My Queen," Zenos said, bowing down before Kairi's throne, "Why have you called us back so suddenly?"

"Yes," Vasilios added, "We were about to rid the world of two Nobodies, one of which I had been sent to destroy before."

Kairi stepped off of her throne, walking toward the three knights, and then stopped immediately in front of them. She then began to walk toward the golden door that lead to the room that the three spent most of their time, motioning for them to follow.

Once all four were in the room, Kairi turned toward the knights once again.

"The Nobodies in the Twilight World will be dealt with soon enough," she said, her voice becoming distorted as she spoke, "There are more important things to deal with... such as the preparation of _this_ World for the final step."

"The... _already!?_", Vasilios said, stepping back a little. Kairi nodded, then walked over to the orb of Light floating in the middle of the room.

"I have been preparing this from the very beginning of our occupation of this world," she said, holding one hand out and nearly touching the orb, "This ball of Light is far more than just a communication device..."

She touched the orb lightly, with one finger. The chairs in the room began to shudder as if some enormous pressure was upon them, and then slowly they were pulled off of the floor and began to float in midair, orbiting around the glowing ball. Kairi tapped two fingers against the orb, and the chairs began to warp and twist around in the air, losing all resemblance to chairs. A third finger tapped the orb for just a second, and the chairs were pulled into it and vanished.

Kairi then removed her hand from the orb, and everything was back to normal once again, minus a few chairs.

"Yes... this is _far_ more than just a means of communication," she said, "As you can see... it is the final tool for the purification of all worlds."

* * *

Roxas and Zexion continued to be pulled downward through the darkness, coming closer and closer to the strange, green-tinted volcano at the bottom. And then, suddenly, they stopped moving and just hung in the air.

Before they could figure out what was going on, a deep, booming voice spoke in their minds.

_"You seek to open the Door,"_ the voice said, _"For what purpose, I do not know... nor do I care. For I am Chernabog, the Door's guardian... eternally bound to do battle with all who approach it..."_

"That voice," Roxas said, "Where's it coming from? It's like... it's all around me..."

"I don't know... I suspect that whoever is speaking to us know lurks somewhere within that volcano," Zexion said, looking down toward the open crater at the top of the mountain.

_"You are correct,"_ the voice said again, growing slightly louder. There was a rumbling sound from somewhere far below them, and the inside of the volcano grew dark, with only two points of yellowish-green light remaining. There was a flash of fire from somewhere within the volcano, sending blue-gray smoke drifting upward, and then an enormous black shape burst upward from the crater.

Roxas reached up and pulled his two Keyblades out of their straps, and Zexion held out both of his hands and closed his eyes in concentration. The smoke around them cleared, and flames erupted from the volcano, flying everywhere but not striking the two Nobodies. And then, the black figure came flying down at them, swiping at them with a huge, clawed hand.

Zexion teleported backwards a bit, just barely escaping the creature's reach while continuing to concentrate, but Roxas was hit. The young Nobody went flying off into the darkness, but quickly caught himself and realized that he was still able to fly in the void. He came speeding back toward the scene of the battle, dodging several more claw swipes, and then swung one of his Keyblades at the monster's arm.

Meanwhile, Zexion moved his hands into a different position, and bluish-black energy began to surge between them for a few seconds before flickering a little and forming into a long shape. Slowly, a dark blue, staff-like weapon began to materialize in his hands. On one end were three of the familiar cross-point designs of the Nobody symbol, which appeared on nearly every Organization XIII member's weapons. On the opposite end were several parts jutting out, including two more cross-points. Attached to the flat part of the staff, near the top, was a small, upside-down Nobody symbol, and at the bottom near the three cross-points, several silvery-colored crystals were embedded into it.

Zexion gripped his weapon with one hand, then held the other out in front of him. Another surge of blue-black energy appeared, quickly forming itself into a small, shiny, perfectly-round black orb. The orb floated into the air for a few seconds, drifting upward, before finally coming to a stop directly above Zexion's staff, resting in midair just above the top of the weapon.

A fireball came speeding toward Zexion, but he stood his ground, holding his staff out in front of him. The orb floating above the staff began to glow blue for a second, and then a small flicker of blue energy flew outward from it, intercepting the fireball and sending it flying off in another direction instead. Roxas saw it headed toward him, and struck it with one Keyblade, knocking it toward Chernabog like a baseball. The fireball exploded upon impact, sending Chernabog back a few feet, but he was soon on the attack once again.

_"Unformed hearts,"_ the voice in their heads said, slowly, as the enormous creature it belonged to began to move its hands about in the air, _"Take shape... and attack!"_

There were several small glimmers in the space next to Chernabog, and then suddenly they grew into translucent greenish shapes--of humans, dogs, cats, and all sorts of other creatures--before flying toward the two Nobodies. Roxas flew upward to avoid them, but they continued to chase after him, apparently locking onto his position. Zexion flew upward as well, knocking the strange shapes away with bursts of energy from the orb as he went.

Roxas found himself cornered, with several of the shapes closing in on him, but just before the managed to hit him they were knocked away by Zexion's staff. The two Nobodies flew back toward Chernabog and struck at once, slamming their weapons into his midsection from behind. Two huge, black wings flapped outward, knocking Roxas and Zexion backward and nearly into another eruption of fire from the volcano.

One of Roxas' two Keyblades glowed red for a second as he slashed it into the flames, apparently absorbing them into the weapon. The red glow grew brighter, and he aimed the end of the weapon toward Chernabog. The glow focused itself to the end of the weapon and then suddenly vanished as a huge fireball flew outward from the Keyblade, smashing into one of Chernabog's wings and nearly tearing it off. The monster roared in pain, then sent a barrage of fireballs back toward the Nobodies, knocking them around several times.

Zexion flew back toward Chernabog again, about to slam his staff into him, but was knocked aside by another powerful swing from one of the creature's arms. The blue-haired Nobody went flying downward, slamming into the side of the volcano. Roxas came flying up after Chernabog as well, swinging both Keyblades wildly, and unlike Zexion he was able to get through. Keyblade-swings came at incredible speeds, over and over, slamming into Chernabog's chest and gradually knocking the monster backward. Roxas finished his attack by raising both Keyblades high into the air and slamming them down onto Chernabog's head, severing one of his horns and causing an explosion of flames and energy.

Chernabog was knocked down toward the volcano, but caught himself before the impact. He turned to the volcano and went through a series of complicated hand motions, and then suddenly, as he raised both hands high above his head, the volcano erupted, sending flames and smoke everywhere. Zexion scrambled off of the volcano just in time to avoid being burned, but wasn't quick enough to avoid all of the attack--several fireballs slammed into him, burning away large portions of his cloak and slamming him upward into space.

"Zexion!", Roxas yelled, looking over in the blue-haired Nobody's direction. Zexion nodded slightly and began to float over toward Roxas, carefully dodging the fireballs that rained down toward them.

"I'm fine," he said, upon reaching Roxas, "Just... a few burns here and there, that's all. We've got to finish this quick, though--Vexen and Lexaeus are probably tired of waiting for us."

Roxas nodded, then turned back to Chernabog with both Keyblades held out in front of him. Zexion drifted forward slightly, holding his staff with both hands, and purplish energy began to glow around the orb.

And then, suddenly, there were two Zexions--and then three, and four--each carrying identical staves, though there was more of a purple glow around the three copies' weapons than on the one belonging to the original. Zexion, Roxas, and all three of Zexion's doppelgangers all flew at Chernabog from different angles, with Roxas slashing and bashing him with both Keyblades. The original Zexion hung back slightly, attacking from a distance using the orb on his staff, while the three illusional copies swung away with their weapons.

Zexion's orb, now floating closer to Chernabog rather than above his staff, began to glow, then flew in for a second and slammed into one of his wings. The three copies of Zexion each smashed their weapons into Chernabog's face before being destroyed by a blast of fire, and Roxas was continuing to dart around and attack with his two Keyblades at every opportunity. Chernabog swiped at Roxas again, but he just jumped over the attack and swung one of his Keyblades downward, severing a few fingers from the giant hand. Chernabog roared once again, and began to fly upward, but before another attack could come, Zexion summoned more copies of himself and each of them flew upward into him, stabbing him in the chest with the pointed ends of their weapons.

These copies were soon knocked away and destroyed as well, but they gave Roxas an opening. He flew up above the point where Chernabog had stopped, and raised his two Keyblades high into the air once again. Flames began to surround one of them, while glowing shapes and light danced across the surface of the other. And then, just as the monster looked up and noticed Roxas there, the Keyblades came down.

There was a massive explosion of fire and a flash of light, followed shortly afterward by an even larger explosion of blue flames and smoke. When Zexion and Roxas opened their eyes, Chernabog was gone... but his voice still remained.

_"You have succeeded,"_ the voice said, echoing in their minds, _"You may now proceed on your journey to the Door."_

Roxas looked down toward the volcano. Now that the fight was over, he had some time to think about things again--and one thing in particular bothered him.

"Wait a second," Roxas said, drifting down toward the volcano once again, "I remember Sora mentioning you before, when I was still part of him... but he never said anything about you _talking._"

_"Only beings with a sufficient amount of Darkness can hear my voice,"_ he answered, _"Nobodies, Heartless... even complete beings. Any who call on both Light and Darkness, or on Darkness alone, can hear my voice. Yet Sora relied only on the Light... so he heard nothing."_

_"Now... continue your journey to reopen the Door. If you wish to stop the plans of Gil-Neithev... you must hurry."_

* * *

**Author's Note:** Yep, Zexion's weapon (and before the official version is revealed, too!) _and_ a character that I've never seen in KH fanfiction before, in the same chapter.

As for Chernabog's lack of "evilness," I figured that KH-Chernabog and Original-Chernabog might as well be entirely different characters. KH-Chernabog is smaller, isn't associated with the Disney villains (or Xehanort) at all, and doesn't even live in an area that's inhabited, so the "terrorize the village" act probably isn't his kind of thing.


	70. Chapter 65: The Door Opens

**Chapter 65**

Roxas and Zexion flew through the dark void, coming closer and closer to the Door to Darkness--or, at least, they hoped they were; it was impossible to see it from where they were, but since they had just fought the door's guardian, it was probably safe to assume that it was close.

However, their journey was slowed down considerably by the frequent interruptions of Heartless. Sometimes they would be attacked by various flying Heartless, and would have to fight them off in mid-flight; other times, stone platforms would appear beneath them and gravity would return just in time for them to fall right into _another_ battle with a swarm of Heartless.

"Is it just me," Roxas said, swatting away another flying Heartless that had attempted to come up behind him, "Or are the Heartless attacking us a little more than usual?"

"It seems that way," Zexion said, "I suspect that they are being controlled by Chernabog... to make sure we don't let our guard down, even after defeating him." 

"Hmm... that makes sense."

Another swarm of flying Heartless approached; this time they were the small type known as "Rapid Thrusters," coming at the two Nobodies all at once. Zexion summoned his weapon once again--normally, Heartless wouldn't be worth bothering with his weapon, but there were just so many of them--and Roxas pulled out his Keyblades. The two flew upward, spinning their weapons around rapidly and smashing dozens of the Heartless out of the way with a single blow each. The orb from Zexion's staff was buzzing around and firing small bolts of energy at the Heartless as well, knocking them off balance and causing them to slam into each other. Before long, the swarm of Heartless cleared out, and the two were free to fly forward once again.

And then, there was a sight of something new on the horizon. Off in the distance, they could see something white, apparently sitting on a gray stone platform...

"The Door!", Roxas said, pointing in that direction. Zexion turned to him and nodded, and then the two sped off in the door's direction as fast as they could go.

* * *

"Well, it looks like that was the last of 'em," Mickey said, dematerializing his Keyblade and brushing some dust off of his clothes. Vexen and Lexaeus unsummoned their weapons as well, and then walked over to where the mouse King was standing. White dust from dead Shin'an coated the normally-blue ground, then quickly dissolved away into nothing when a light wind began to blow.

"It seems so," Lexaeus said, looking around just in case there were any more of the glowing creatures sneaking around. Seeing nothing, he turned to face Mickey once again.

"However," Vexen said, "It also seems that they were not focusing on this world at all, at least not yet. The Shin'an living here were likely only the weakest varieties... other worlds may hold more dangerous ones."

"Yeah," Mickey said, "There sure are--I've fought a few of them myself."

"So we must continue to be on the lookout for more," Lexaeus said, beginning to walk away from the scene of the battle. Mickey soon followed, and Vexen did as well after he finished writing something down on a clipboard he was carrying. The three walked back to the city of Radiant Garden itself, when suddenly the communicators belonging to the two Nobodies began to beep loudly, the tune sounding something like a tinny, one-instrument version of a song Demyx played on his sitar whenever a fight broke out and he was watching.

"Roxas and Zexion," Vexen said, pushing a button on his communicator, "They must have found the Door."

He then brought the watch-like device up in front of his face and pushed another button, then spoke into it.

"Roxas, Zexion," he said, "Have you unsealed the Door to Darkness?"

"Not yet," Zexion's voice said, coming from the communicator, "Roxas was just about to get to that... I just thought I'd let you know that we would be done with our mission soon. What world are you currently on?"

"Radiant Garden," Vexen said, "You should know how to get here without much trouble. Now, complete your mission and then meet us at the outskirts of the city."

The communicator beeped once more, and then turned off.

* * *

Roxas and Zexion stood in front of the enormous white door, with only a small gray stone platform beneath their feet. Gravity had returned to them once again, as it had with every other platform that had appeared, but unlike the rest of the platforms, there were no Heartless lurking here.

"So, I suppose you know how to unlock this door?", Zexion asked, turning toward Roxas. The young Nobody was looking up at the door, with a Keyblade in each hand hanging at his side. He then nodded and looked forward, slowly holding up his two Keyblades in the Door's direction.

At first, nothing happened. And then, slowly, a warm, yellow-white glow surrounded the white Keyblade that symbolized Naminé, starting at the handle and progressing to the tip of the weapon. A red glow, like that of hot coals smoldering in the remains of a fire, began to surround the black Keyblade, and soon that glow reached the tip of its weapon as well.

Two beams leapt forth from the two Keyblades, flying toward the door and colliding with it. White and red energy began to swirl around in front of the door, covering it, and then a gigantic symbol resembling a keyhole appeared in the middle of it. The two-colored glow became brighter and brighter until it all seemed to blend together, and then suddenly dimmed once again.

The keyhole symbol vanished with a few sparkles, and there was the sound of a door creaking open, followed by a rush of black-purple fog. As the door opened wider and wider, more and more Darkness billowed out of it, surrounding the two Nobodies for a few minutes. And then, it began to clear off, absorbing into the dark void around them. The door was standing wide open, and a dark landscape dotted with strange pillars and ruins could be seen beyond it.

"Well," Zexion said, "Looks like we're done here."

Zexion and Roxas both opened dark portals behind themselves, and then they disappeared, heading off through the Dark Passage to the location where Vexen and Lexaeus were waiting.

* * *

"So, that's how you do it," Riku said, watching the Darkness fade away from his hands and one of Sephiroth's minor wounds seal up, a purple aura surrounding it for a second.

"Yes," Xehanort said, "You've learned well, just as I suspected. Now, we should leave Sephiroth to rest--even with healing powers, sleep is the key to recovery. No amount of Darkness can change that."

And then, suddenly, Xehanort's eyes widened once again and he turned toward the window, staring out at something in the distance.

"What is it?", Riku said, walking up next to the taller man, "Is... Gil-Neithev here now?"

"No," Xehanort said, "This is... far better news than _that_ would be, though just as unexpected."

"What happened?"

"The Door... someone has unsealed the door between this World and the World of Light," he said, walking over to the window, "The balance between Light and Darkness in the Worlds can be repaired now... Gil-Neithev will be weakened."

"Well, that really _is_ good news," Riku said, "Do you think we should go and see who did it?"

"I doubt we will reach them in time," Xehanort said, "And it's impossible to tell where they would go--I cannot even tell which side the Door was opened from."

Xehanort paced back and forth for a few minutes, and then turned around to face Riku once again.

"However," he said, "This would be the perfect time to go after Gil-Neithev's forces... with excess Darkness from this World pouring into the World of Light, Gil-Neithev would be weakened, and his plans delayed."

"So we're going?", Riku asked, turning toward the extra bed where Sephiroth was lying, "But... what about him? He's not really in very good shape for leaving his _bed,_ let alone this _World..._"

"The Heartless will look after him," Xehanort said, "After I tell them, at least. They'll listen to anything I say, and his condition is stable enough that no more healing will be necessary."

The dark-skinned man whistled, and then suddenly hundreds of Heartless appeared fromm every crack on the room, looking up at him with their big, yellow eyes. Occasionally one of them would blink, or wiggle its antennae slightly, but most of the time their attention was perfectly focused on Xehanort.

"You," he said, pointing to what appeared to be a miniature Darkside Heartless, "Make sure he doesn't leave the building until he is full recovered. And you..."

He then pointed to a group of various wizard-type Heartless, with a single large Crimson Jazz floating in the middle of a group of the smaller types.

"Bring him some breakfast when he awakens," he said, "And bring other food whenever he says he's hungry. Nothing too heavy, and nothing fried or greasy until he's recovered. Start with light cereals and pastries at first. And you..."

He pointed to another group of Heartless, which was made up of Shadows and Neoshadows of various sizes. The largest of the Neoshadows cocked its head to the side slightly and made an odd, squeaky purring sound.

"You will be responsible for making sure he has plenty to drink," Xehanort said, "Fruit juices in the mornings, and plain water throughout the rest of the day until he's well enough to stand. After that, he may choose his own food and drinks."

One of the Green Requiems seemed slightly annoyed at that, and scrunched up its face slightly. It was apparently looking forward to having to pick out all of the food for Sephiroth's meals.

"The rest of you," Xehanort said, looking all around the room, "Keep the house in one piece while I'm gone, and make sure nobody who isn't supposed to be here gets in."

And with that, Xehanort and Riku left the house, leaving the swarms of Heartless behind to look after Sephiroth.

* * *

**Author's Note:** The communicator beeps play a ringtone-ish version of "The 13th Struggle," in case you were wondering. Heh... 


	71. Chapter 66: Sora Departs

**Author's Note:** This is not the same as the first Chapter 66 I uploaded, so don't skip it just because you read that one already!! I realized I had messed up big-time with that one, so I deleted it and redid some parts of it.

* * *

**Chapter 66**

Kairi stood alone in the small room, one hand held just inches away from each side of the glowing orb. Her eyes were closed, and a slight glow surrounded her entire body, creating small sparks between her hands and the orb occasionally. The orb began to glow brighter and brighter...

And then, suddenly, the light flickered. At first, it was only a slight change--it was still growing brighter by the second--but then it flickered again and again, returning to its previous dimness.

"What!?", Kairi gasped, opening her eyes for the first time. They were glowing almost white, but as they opened they quickly reverted to their usual blue.

"The Light has grown weak... someone must have..."

"My Queen!"

Zenos entered the room suddenly, apparently noticing the change as well. He stared at the orb of Light in the room's center for a second, and then turned back to Kairi.

"Sora's Nobody did this... he has opened the Door to Darkness," the knight said, glancing back to the orb for a second, "Shall I deal with him?"

"No," Kairi said, walking away from the orb and looking out through the open door, "I have other plans for the Door... Roxas will be dealt with along with the rest of the Twilight World's inhabitants."

"Other plans... what do you mean by this, my Queen?"

"You are well aware that it requires two Keyblades to seal the Door," she said, motioning out into the hall toward the two thrones, "And not just any Keyblades will do--only those crafted by the Chasers."

"But... what of Roxas' Keyblades?"

"They were spawned from Sora's," Kairi said, "And thus, they hold the same power. To reseal the Door, however... we must use that power as well."

"Sora... you intend to send him to the Door?"

"Yes," Kairi said, "First, he will make a stop at Disney Castle to meet up with Donald and Goofy... I will have our visitor, Yen Sid, create a new outfit for Sora so that he may use his two Keyblades at once, with a bit of help."

"The three of them fighting together should be able to defeat anyone they encounter along the way," Zenos said, "And with Sora under your complete control... he will not be able to betray us."

* * *

Minnie flipped through the ancient scrolls she had discovered deep beneath the castle, not sure exactly what she was looking at but somehow sure that it was important. None of the others who had been imprisoned beneath the castle had had any luck deciphering the scrolls, either--they all seemed to be written in strange and ancient languages that none of them had ever seen before.

It was terrible at first, but slowly the prisoners had gotten used to their life within the castle's catacombs. They were essentially free to go wherever they pleased, so long as they did not enter the upper part of the castle--which wasn't a hard thing to avoid, since all doors leading to the castle's ground floor were sealed up and blocked by iron bars.

Occasionally stale bread and water were slipped through a compartment in one of the walls, but other than that there was nothing to eat or drink. Their clothes--once the clothing of royalty--were now dirty and torn from exploring the catacombs for days and going unwashed for just as long.

After nearly an hour of staring at the scroll in front of her, Minnie carefully rolled it back up and headed back up toward the blockaded door. Usually, nothing could be heard from up above--but today, apparently, something different had happened.

There were cheers and shouts from the ground floor of the castle, as if some important visitor was being greeted. And, oddly enough, Minnie almost thought she could hear the voices of Donald and Goofy somewhere in the castle.

"But... they were..."

"I know," another prisoner--someone she didn't recognize--said, "They were in some kind of coma the last time I saw them, too... did they get better?"

"I don't know," Minnie whispered, struggling to hear as much of the conversation above as she could. And then she recognized another voice--a familiar voice, though it wasn't one that belonged to any of the castle's permanent residents.

"Sora's here?!"

"Sora? He's come back!?"

The prisoners all huddled around the door, trying to hear what Sora was saying, though once everyone realized that he was just too far away to be heard they broke out in whispers instead.

"He's come to save us!"

"That Keyblade of his could unlock this door, easy!"

"Sora's here? Is the King coming back too?"

And then, after nearly half an hour passed, the whispers slowly began to die down. The sounds of the front door to the castle opening were heard, and three sets of footsteps disappearing off into the distance.

Then the door slammed shut again.

The prisoners shuffled away from the sealed door, their moods suddenly dampened even more than before.

Sora, the supposed hero, had come and gone--taking the newly-awakened Donald and Goofy with him--without even bothering to ask where the Queen or half of the castle's other inhabitants were.

* * *

Xehanort and Riku sped across the dark, blue-greenish landscape of the World of Darkness, making a beeline for the area where the Door to Darkness was located.

The Door between Darkness and Light, unlike those which connect the Twilight World to each of the others, was not drifting somewhere out in space. Instead, it was sitting at the end of a cave, littered with ruined pillars and rock formations. And the two silver-haired men had just reached the entrance to that cave.

"Be careful," Xehanort said, "The cave is very old... many parts of the rock may break away with even a light step."

"Don't worry about that," Riku said, carefully hopping throughout the cave and avoiding the weak points in the floor, "I've been through here before, back when King Mickey and I were locked in."

"Ah," Xehanort said, "In that case, this trip will be much faster. The Door should be close, now--those pillars are the ruins of one of the most ancient cities of this World."

Riku ran up the side of one of the old pillars, which seemed to be carved out of some kind of dark-colored stone, and hopped across to the next one. Xehanort simply levitated above the ground between the pillars, and before long the two passed through several ruined buildings.

"There it is," Riku said, pointing toward an enormous, glowing-white door that seemed to be embedded into the cave's walls. The doors were swung wide open, and there was a clear passage through to the other side, where the World of Light awaited.

* * *

"Gawrsh, Sora," Goofy said, "How long were we asleep again?"

"Days," Sora said, sounding oddly calm and un-Sora-like, "Seven days exactly, if I remember right. You were out for a long time."

Donald and Goofy looked at each other for a second, noticing that Sora seemed _different_ than usual. His voice seemed to have aged twenty years in those seven days since the three had last seen each other--and it was bothering them a little, though they were afraid to ask what was wrong.

"So, how long's the Door to Darkness been open?", Donald asked, attempting to replace the odd silence that had fallen over the Gummi Ship with _something,_ even if it was just the answer to a question he'd already asked before.

"It's been... hardly a day since it opened," Sora responded. It almost sounded like he was pausing to _think_ before he spoke--something was definitely different about Sora. "We've got to hurry and close it again, before anything else happens."

Donald and Goofy both nodded, remembering that the Heartless they had once known as "Ansem" sought to open the door. They never really wondered _why_ Xehanort's Heartless was after the door--or, more importantly, why the door was there in the first place. They associated the door so closely with that insane, Darkness-obsessed man that the thought of anyone actually _opening_ it frightened them.

If they could have seen Sora's face at that moment, they would have an entirely different reason to be afraid. His eyes, normally blue, were now glowing brightly with an odd yellow-white light, and his face was twisted into a strange grin--not the usual kind of strange grins that Sora made, but something different.

_Dangerous,_ even.


	72. Chapter 67: Battle at Radiant Garden

**Chapter 67**

"So, the Door has been reopened," Vexen said, writing down various things on a clipboard as he went, "Good. This should give us some additional time to investigate Gil-Neithev's plans... but we must hurry."

"Agreed," Lexaeus said, "If we do not act quickly, the advantage of opening the door will be lost."

The two Nobodies walked over to where Vexen's spaceship was parked, and Vexen put away his clipboard and traded it for a large avocado. After a day of fighting Shin'an and exploring the blue, rocky cliffs and canyons of Radiant Garden's world, anyone would be hungry.

Roxas and Zexion were sitting next to the ship, along with King Mickey. The three of them were each eating sea-salt-flavored ice cream, though Zexion's was disappearing noticably slower than the popsicles belonging to the others. Lexaeus leaned up against the ship and stared out across the city they had just finished clearing of Shin'an, while Vexen climbed into the ship's cockpit and got everything ready for their next journey.

Several minutes passed, and everyone finished with their food. Lexaeus had not eaten anything--most likely, he just wasn't hungry yet--so he just stood against the ship's hull while Roxas, Zexion, and Mickey all headed off into the city to find some place to dispose of the wooden sticks and wrappers.

And then, suddenly, the engines on Vexen's ship started up without warning, and the ship went flying forward several hundred yards before coming to a stop. Lexaeus pulled away from the ship and took a few steps backward, looking around to see what had caused Vexen to suddenly move the ship, and then, finally, he looked up into the sky above him.

A Gummi Ship, decorated in white and gold and with an odd-looking star-like symbol painted on the side, was coming in for a landing.

* * *

"That guy... is he from the Organization?", Donald asked, turning toward Sora. Based on the angry scowl on Sora's face, the answer was most likely a "yes."

"Gawrsh... and I thought we were just gonna stop here for a bite ta eat..."

"Looks like there's still some fightin' to do before that," Donald said, reaching under his seat and pulling out his wizard's staff. Goofy nodded, and unstrapped his shield from his back, attaching it to his arm in preparation for another fight after so many years of peace.

The Gummi Ship landed, sending blue dust fluttering up all over for a second. And then, the ship's door opened, and the trio carefully hopped out, weapons in hand.

* * *

Lexaeus simply stood and watched as the Gummi Ship came in for a landing, drifting down toward the ground and sending a cloud of dust up around it. The door opened, and out stepped an odd trio--a spikey-haired human clad in royal clothes and holding a Keyblade, along with a duck-like creature with a staff and what appeared to be a dog carrying a round shield, with the same star symbol that was painted on the Gummi Ship emblazoned on the front of it.

"You!", Sora said, pointing toward the large, black-cloaked man that stood a few yards away from him. His arms were crossed, and his face showed no fear of the fight that was undoubtedly approaching.

"You're from Organization XIII," Sora continued, "And that means you're not supposed to exist."

"What I'm wonderin' is," Goofy said, stepping forward with his shield in hand, "How'd you survive? I thought all you Organization guys were done for."

"Yes... I _was_ dead," Lexaeus said, still not uncrossing his arms. And then, he smiled slightly--a rare sight--and let his arms fall to his sides. His weapon suddenly flashed into existence and appeared in one of his hands, and then he spoke once more, still smiling slightly.

"I got better."

Sora looked to Donald and Goofy for a second, and each of them nodded slightly, setting their weapons aside. Lexaeus held out his tomahawk in front of him and waited, knowing that the three were planning something more than just a direct attack.

The Keybearer held out one hand toward each of his companions, and the duck and dog responded by holding their hands out as well and grabbing on. A bright glow began to surge up from the ground around the three of them, with flashes of yellow and white occasionally shooting up around the three and dust sent flying all around. Just before the light became too bright to see through, Sora whispered one word.

_"Final."_

And then, just as suddenly as the flashing lights and waves of energy had begun, they abruptly came to an end. Sora looked around, apparently very confused, and the others seemed completely stunned. Whatever they were attemping, Lexaeus could tell that it had failed.

Before any of the three could make another move, the ground began to shake beneath them. Donald and Goofy stumbled over their weapons and rolled off down either side of the hill that they had just been standing ontop of, while Sora had to brace himself just to keep from falling over.

Lexaeus pulled his heavy weapon back for a second, then flung it forward, sending the massive axe flying through the air like a boomerang toward Sora. The spikey-haired man was barely able to look up before the weapon slammed into him, sending him flying backward. He flew downward into the ground, barely lucky enough to avoid smashing headfirst into the Gummi Ship, and then grunted as he began to pull himself up.

As Sora stood back up and readied his Keyblade, Lexaeus' tomahawk came spinning back toward him, stopping as it reached his hand. Sora jumped into the air above the larger man and swung downward with his Keyblade, the weapon shifting from its default form to the one known as "Oathkeeper" as it struck. Lexaeus was hit, but stood his ground and countered with another blow from his own weapon.

Donald and Goofy came back up the hill toward the scene of the battle just as Lexaeus' axe clashed against the Keyblade, sending red and white sparks flying everywhere. The duck raised his staff into the air and uttered a series of magic words, and then a blast of freezing winds and ice shards came flying at Lexaeus, surrounding the large man in a coating of ice.

And then the ice shattered, sending shards flying everywhere. Lexaeus shook the ice crystals out of his hair and then immediately was on the attack again, seeming completely unharmed by Donald's Blizzard spell. Goofy ran in with his shield held forward, but he was caught by the backswing of Lexaeus' next blow, bowling him over and sending him falling down flat on his rear.

Sora swung his Keyblade rapidly, striking Lexaeus dozens of times and sending him staggering back slightly. There were now cuts visible in the black cloak, though most of the strikes seemed to have failed to draw blood. Lexaeus smashed his weapon downward, and Sora jumped to dodge it--but the attack that came next was certainly not the one the Keyblade-wielder had expected. Instead of dodging the attack, he had jumped right into it. A pillar of rock shot up from the ground beneath him, smashing into him and sending him high into the air. Then the rock shattered and flew upward after him, knocking him around for several seconds.

And then Sora caught his balance again in midair, countering the attack by spinning his Keyblade rapidly and sending the smaller rocks flying off in all directions. Lexaeus swung his axe upward and sent a reddish-brown shockwave flying through the air, but Sora dodged out of the way at the last minute, diving down toward the Nobody with his Keyblade held outward. The sharp points on the end cut into Lexaeus' back, drawing blood for the first time, but before he was able to do any more damage, he was knocked away by another pillar of rock.

"Sora," Lexaeus said, catching his weapon and blocking several of the younger man's attacks with it, "Why do you fight us? Do you not want peace to come to the worlds?"

Sora didn't seem affected by this question, and simply continued to attack, his eyes glowing slightly. The larger man smacked him away with the flat part of his weapon, but before he could attack again, he was struck from above by magical lightning, causing him to struggle just to stand. The duck had aimed the spell directly at his weapon, insuring that he would take the full brunt of the attack--and it had worked.

However, there was one thing Donald hadn't predicted--just how strong Lexaeus could be when he wanted to. While the electricity was still surging around his axe, he shrugged off the spell and swung his weapon toward Donald, shocking him as well as sending him flying. The duck bounced off the hull of the Gummi Ship once, then off of the ground once as well, before finally falling unconscious.

"Donald!", Goofy yelled, running over toward the wounded duck and grabbing onto him, "Are you... are you okay?"

"He should be fine," Lexaeus said, "And you will all survive this day if you would only stop fighting and listen."

Goofy turned toward the large man and began to say something, but before he could get out so much as a full word, Sora leapt in to attack again. Lexaeus blocked Sora's strike with his own weapon, pushing Sora backwards toward the Gummi Ship's hull, and Goofy spoke up once again.

"Well, gawrsh... If you really don't want to fight--"

He was interrupted by Sora, whose eyes were now glowing brightly--though Goofy couldn't see it, since the Keybearer was facing Lexaeus.

"We can't make deals with Nobodies," Sora said, gripping his Keyblade tightly and staring forward, "They have no hearts, remember... they would feel no remorse about breaking any promises they had made."

"Do not listen to him," Lexaeus said, "He's being--"

A blast of Light came flying from the tip of Sora's Keyblade, slamming into Lexaeus, interrupting his sentence and sending him skidding backwards along the ground. For the first time in the battle, the huge man with the axe had been knocked off of his feet.

"I have no intention of listening to the words of those who were not meant to exist," Sora said, slowly walking closer to Lexaeus. Goofy looked up from tending to Donald's wounds for just a second, and out of the corner of his eye he saw a second black-cloaked man approaching.

"Sora! Look out!"

Sora turned just in time to see a barrage of icicles the size of spears flying toward him, with another Organization XIII member following not far behind them. He jumped and rolled out of the way of the ice-spears, but they turned to follow him. He swung his Keyblade up at the icicles as they approached, and they went flying off in different directions, shattered to pieces as they collided with the weapon. Several larger chunks of ice smashed into the Gummi Ship, knocking a few gummi blocks free and sending them bouncing off down the hill.

In the time it took Sora to counter Vexen's attacks, Lexaeus had brought himself to his feet once again. He teleported behind Sora and knocked the Keyblade out of his hand with a blow from his tomahawk, then grabbed the smaller man with one hand, restraining both of his arms.

"There is no reason for us to fight," Lexaeus said, tightening his grip, "We fight to bring peace to the worlds, and you claim to do so as well. If we joined forces to destroy Gil-Neithev..."

Sora's eyes widened and they began to glow white, and then an explosion of energy sent Lexaeus backward and freed the smaller man from his hold. Goofy made no motion to attack, instead making sure his friend Donald was alive and not seriously wounded. Lexaeus recovered from the blast and swung his weapon toward Sora, but the younger man summoned his fallen Keyblade to his hands and blocked the attack with it. The two attacked each other for several seconds, Keyblade clanging against tomahawk, before finally Vexen intervened again, freezing Sora's feet to the ground.

Just then, Zexion, Roxas, and Mickey came up over the hill from the city, each carrying a few things they had bought while they were there. Mickey and Roxas immediately dropped everything they were carrying upon seeing Sora, while Zexion opened a small portal to the Dark Passage and placed his bags into it.

"Sora! What're you _doing!?_", Mickey shouted, running in the spikey-haired boy's direction but not summoning his Keyblade, "These guys aren't enemies! They're on our side!"

Sora slowly turned his head toward the small King, an aura of Light surging up around him for a second and melting the ice-restraints that had held his feet in place. He took a few steps forward, looking down at Mickey, and his eyes flickered slightly.

"They may be on _your_ side," Sora said, raising up his Keyblade and pointing it at the King, "But they most certainly are not on mine."

Goofy looked up in Sora's direction and gasped. This was _not_ Sora--it couldn't be. Sora never talked like that, and he would never think of attacking King Mickey... but it seemed that that was exactly what was about to happen. A bright yellowish-white light began to form around the Keyblade, slowly approaching the weapon's tip, and then there was a bright flash as a beam emerged and headed straight toward the unsuspecting King. Goofy yelled.

"Sora, don't!"

And that was the point when Goofy couldn't take it anymore. He was supposed to follow the chosen wielder of the Keyblade, but he could never betray his King, even for Sora. He picked up his shield and ran as fast as he could.

Goofy propelled himself into the air, shield held out in front of him, and he slammed into Mickey, pushing the mouse out of harm's way. The beam of Light from Sora's Keyblade did not stop now that Mickey was no longer in its path, however. There was a bright flash, and when it all cleared, Goofy lay motionless on the ground, smoke rising from his body and the shattered remains of his shield lying all around him.

Sora's confidence seemed to waver for a second, but then his eyes glowed brighter once again, and he turned back toward Lexaeus.

"The fool... he should have known that his shield could not have blocked such an attack."

Sora took another step toward Lexaeus, and Goofy moaned in pain, reaching for his shield but only finding metal shrapnel all over the ground. Mickey just stared in shock at Sora, not quite able to grasp the fact that the boy he had once known had nearly killed one of his most loyal knights.

And then, suddenly, Sora stopped. A voice in his head spoke, though Mickey and the others could hear it as well--just not quite as clearly.

_"Sora... we cannot allow Donald and Goofy to know of this. Return immediately so that I may take care of them."_

Mickey took a step toward Sora before speaking, asking the disembodied voice a question.

"_Take care_ of them? Does that mean they're gonna..."

_"Ha! Kill them?",_ the voice answered, _"But that would be such a waste of perfectly good soldiers. No, I do not plan on killing them... I plan on giving them a new life, far more than that which they currently have."_

Sora nodded, apparently understanding what that meant even though nobody else did. A glowing door appeared in the air behind him, and shortly afterward two smaller doors appeared under Donald and Goofy.

And then, Sora stepped into his own door, and the three of them vanished.


	73. Chapter 68: Why

**Chapter 68**

Riku and Xehanort stood on the grayish stone platform just beyond the Door's opening, looking out into the strange dark void that surrounded the area. There was nobody around when they arrived--just as Xehanort had expected, whoever had unsealed the door had left shortly afterward.

Though the two of them had definitely been there before, the place was barely recognizable to Riku or Xehanort. The only thing they could see that was familiar, besides the Door to Darkness itself, was the stone platform it was standing on. Everything else--the odd platforms of land, and the areas that resembled parts of other worlds--was nowhere to be seen. Most likely, they had returned to the worlds of their origin after Xehanort was defeated all those years ago.

And that got Riku thinking. _Why_ had the fragmented, re-shaped sections of the worlds eaten by the Heartless returned to their original places and reverted to the worlds they once were? Closing the door, obviously, wasn't the reason--that had actually _harmed_ the balance of the worlds, slowing the flow of Darkness and Light between them. And just defeating Xehanort shouldn't have had such a huge effect, either--especially since Xehanort had survived the battle.

So, after failing to figure it out himself, he turned toward Xehanort and decided to ask if _he_ knew.

"Xehanort... there's something I've been wondering about," Riku said, walking a few feet toward the darker-skinned man, "What was it that made the pieces of the worlds go back into place? You know, the... the ones the Heartless had destroyed..."

Xehanort looked at him oddly for a second, as if trying to remember something. His memory had been reconstructed by Naminé, but it was still far from complete--and the gaps in his memory started right at the point when he was defeated by Sora the first time. He remembered the battle against Riku in Castle Oblivion, and his last attempt to regain control only weeks afterward, but before and after that point... there was very little left to remember.

"I'm not sure," Xehanort said, "I don't remember seeing anything out of the ordinary in the area before the battle with Sora, but certainly the worlds can't just heal _themselves..._ not from _that_ kind of destruction..."

Xehanort once again paced away from Riku, deep in thought. He hadn't thought about it before, but now it was painfully obvious--something _very_ strange was going on. In his past insanity, he had gotten the idea that by sending Heartless to devour the hearts of worlds, he was reconstructing them to their original form. The worlds certainly did come together as a result of this, but it was not in their original form at all--they were ruined in the process, the water grew foul and poisonous, and the land would no longer support plant growth. Of all the worlds consumed by the Heartless, only a single island from a small, water-covered world had managed to keep its original form--and even it had begun to decay like the rest of them before it was all over.

What _had_ brought the worlds back to normal again? It was impossible for the worlds to simply heal themselves--if it had been possible, the World of Light would have recovered from Gil-Neithev's attack long ago, rather than remaining shattered into many smaller worlds.

But if that was impossible... what else could be the cause?

* * *

"It's not that bad," Lexaeus said, sitting perfectly still as Vexen bandaged some of the larger Keyblade-wounds that hadn't begun to heal yet. "He wasn't quite up to his full potential, thanks to his Final Form malfunctioning. If not for his two friends, I would not have had much difficulty matching him."

"Yes, about that," Vexen said, brushing a small amount of some sort of liquid over one of the wounds before attaching another bandage, "The malfunction of his Drive form, that is. Do you know what caused that to happen?"

"Yes," Lexaeus said, causing Vexen's eyes to widen for a second in interest. A few seconds passed, and just before Vexen began to grow impatient, the larger man finally continued his sentence.

"One piece of the equation was missing," he said, "And so, the fusion was not possible."

"A piece missing...?"

Vexen put on the final bandage, and then handed Lexaeus a spare Organization cloak to replace the one that had been cut up in the battle with Sora. He put the cloak on, then slowly stood up, stretching slightly. He was still a bit sore from the battle, but he was beginning to recover already.

"Roxas," Lexaeus said, "Sora's Final form is not merely a fusion of the boy with his duck and dog friends, as it would appear at first. A fourth person is involved--and that fourth person is Sora's other half."

And at that moment, Roxas himself climbed into the ship and walked toward the storage area where Vexen and Lexaeus were sitting. He had apparently heard his own name mentioned.

"Yeah... that's how it works," he said, apprently overhearing more of the conversation than just his own name, "We fought, once--within his mind, of course, we were still in the same body then. He lost, but I knew he was going to--what I was trying to see is whether he would give up."

"Hmm... so you lent him your power as well, after that?", Lexaeus asked.

Roxas lowered his head. Now that he had his memories of the past once again--and with them, all the memories of the time he was in the Organization--he realized what he had done by providing Sora with extra power.

He had watched Sora kill them. Demyx first--he hadn't even wanted to fight in the first place, but Sora provoked him, insulted him. Then Xaldin--Roxas had no idea what Xaldin was up to, but now that he thought back to that time, he _was_ acting very odd in the Beast's castle all those years ago. He hardly seemed like himself--so he must have been up to something. And Axel--even when Axel had brought himself into critical condition just to save them, Sora and his friends made no attempt to help. They just sat on the sidelines and listened as Axel died--not even giving so much as a simple Cure spell, or a potion. _Nothing._

And then, later, when Sora went to the World That Never Was and infiltrated the Organization's base... when he had killed Xigbar, Luxord, and Saix... Roxas had _helped_ him, not knowing that he had been helping to kill people that had been his friends, the friends of his friends, his allies...

Roxas felt a hand tap him on the shoulder slightly, and turned around to see that Zexion was now standing behind him, carrying another popsicle (this one still in its wrapper) and a few bottles of some sort of soft drink.

"Don't worry about what you did in the past," Zexion said, handing the ice cream to Roxas, "We all did some things we aren't proud of when we were under the orders of Xemnas, but what we will do in the present--and the future--is far more important now."

The younger of the two Nobodies grabbed the bar of sea-salt ice cream carefully, making sure not to drop it, and then reached up to wipe the tears away from his eyes. It was the first time he had noticed that he had been _crying,_ and just from the _thought_ of Sora's slaughter of the Organization...

But apparently, nobody else in the ship had noticed, so Roxas decided not to mention it. He unwrapped the ice cream bar and sat down next to King Mickey to eat it, watching the others as they left the storage area in the back and sat down in their own seats.

And then the ship took off, heading away to some other world, to further investigate the plans of Gil-Neithev.

* * *

"So you've finally decided," Zenos said, standing in front of Kairi and Sora, who were sitting in their thrones. Sora's eyes were glowing brightly now, and he was staring forward, apparently not paying any attention to anything that was happening.

"Yes," Kairi said, her voice becoming echoed and distorted, "Donald and Goofy have already undergone the purification ritual, so there is only one step remaining before they truly become our allies."

"I suppose you have already prepared their armor, then?", Zenos asked. Kairi nodded, and then waved her hand slightly. A door of Light appeared in the air, and Vasilios and Sofia stepped out of it, each carrying a smaller and differently-shaped suit of the same heavy-looking, golden armor that each of the knights wore. One was hardly half the size of the other, and duck-shaped; the other was closer to a humanoid shape, but the legs and arms were proportioned differently and the helmet was a bit longer in the front than the rest.

"They have already pledged loyalty to Gil-Neithev, whether they realize it or not," Sofia said, looking first at the duck-shaped suit of armor and then at the unconscious Donald, "So they will have no choice but to accept the armor of the Warriors of Light."

Kairi nodded once again, and her eyes began to glow brightly. The glow spread to one of her hands, and then the two empty suits of armor began to float upward away from the knights that were carrying them. Donald and Goofy suddenly were surrounded by a strange, pale light, and they stood up, standing perfectly still and remaining completely silent. Their eyes did not even open--it seemed that they were still unconscious, despite the fact that they were standing.

And then, there was an odd crackling sound. The two suits of armor drifted toward the duck and dog, slowly at first but then accellerating rapidly as they came closer. The crackling continued, and became louder and louder as the two suits of armor came closer to their future wearers. There was a loud _CRACK,_ as if lightning had just struck, and the entire room was filled with a bright flash.

The light cleared, and the room returned to its usual brightness. Kairi was sitting on her throne, smiling slightly and staring at the two newest additions to her army. Sora's eyes dimmed slightly, turning blue again, and he began to smile as well at the sight of Donald and Goofy, alive and well, wearing the armor of Gil-Neithev's warriors.

The two raised their hands in a salute, and then bowed down in front of Sora and Kairi before following the other three knights out of the throne room, through the golden door, to the place where the knights spent most of their time.


	74. Chapter 69: Attack on the Castle

**Chapter 69**

Sephiroth woke up to the sight of two large, round, yellow eyes staring at him from just a few inches away from his face, apparently belonging to some kind of creature that was sitting on his chest.

After a second or two of staring at the eyes in shock and confusion, he realized what the creature was--a Heartless, likely a Shadow by the shape of the head and eyes. He shifted his weight slightly so that the creature slid off of his chest and onto the bed beside him, clawing at the edge of the mattress to avoid falling off and hitting the floor.

He sat up in the bed, watching the little Heartless clawing its way back up onto the bed, and then it finally hit him. Where the hell _was_ he?

Sephiroth hopped out of the bed and stood beside it, but before he could take a step his legs gave out underneath him and he fell to the floor. He was injured--with scars and sore spots all over--and in no condition to be getting out of bed. He made an attempt to reach back up toward the bed, to pull himself up, but he had fallen in the wrong direction and couldn't reach it at all. Just as he was about to try calling for help, several more Heartless entered the room.

"More of them," he muttered to himself, "Where am I?"

The Heartless squeaked, apparently answering his question--though, unfortunately, he had no idea what they were trying to say. A larger one with tentacle-like appendages on its head walked over, lifted him up, and placed him back into the bed as several more of the small Shadows climbed up around him.

And then, suddenly, the whole room was buzzing with Heartless. A Green Requiem fluttered around his head for several seconds before flying off into another room, and then a group of other wizard-type Heartless entered the room carrying a plate with a bowl and spoon on it. A larger one--probably a Crimson Jazz based on the coloring--carried a jug of milk, and the Green Requiem he had seen before came into the room dragging a box of cereal by its tiny legs, barely able to support the box's weight.

Now Sephiroth was almost sure he was dreaming, or hallucinating, or _something._ This couldn't be happening--right? Heartless weren't intelligent, and even when being controlled, they didn't follow complicated orders very well. He reached down and grabbed onto one of the sore places on his leg, squeezing it as hard as he could.

And it _hurt._ **_Bad._**

He _was_ awake. And a swarm of oddly-intelligent Heartless were, indeed, serving him breakfast.

Sephiroth quickly lost consciousness once again, and the Heartless carrying his food nearly dropped it out of frustration.

* * *

"Well, I've seen the others do it a lot of times before," Michiko said, turning toward Otonashi, "But I never really tried it, myself."

They were talking, of course, about opening portals to the Dark Passage. As Vexen had taken the only remaining spacecraft out of its storage room when he had left along with Lexaeus, Zexion, and Roxas, the two members left behind at Castle Oblivion were having a bit of a transportation problem. There were no more spaceships left anywhere, Gummi-based or otherwise, so they had decided to try using the Dark Passage.

Unfortunately, Otonashi had not been a member long enough to have learned how, and Michiko had never once bothered to try it during her years as part of the "new" Organization XIII.

"So I guess we're stuck here, then," Otonashi said, staring out the window at the grassy fields that stretched out in front of the castle. "We can't _walk_ to another world, that's for sure."

"Well, I could _try_ opening a portal," Michiko said, "I'm just not sure if it'd work..."

She held out one hand in front of her, like the others usually did when opening the dark portals, and then just stood there and waited. Nothing happened. She tried to focus on the air in front of her--maybe _that_ was how they did it?--but again, nothing happened.

After several minutes' worth of failed attempts, Michiko sat down against the white wall of the castle and sighed. With the luck they were having lately, Gil-Neithev would be dead and gone before she'd even be able to see the others again.

* * *

Donald and Goofy came clanking back into the throne room in their newly-acquired suits of golden armor, now carrying new weapons to replace the outdated ones that had been damaged in the battle with Lexaeus. Goofy's shield was now a shiny yellow-gold color, with various unknown symbols engraved around the edges. In the center of the weapon was something that appeared to be a picture of Kairi's thalassa-shell good luck charm, but with the sun behind it, illuminating it with a pale yellowish-white light. Donald's staff was similarly redesigned, and was now a long, golden staff with a star on top that closely resembled the ancient symbol of Light--a slightly-pointed vertical oval shape, with an extra point on the top and an arm-like shape coming out of each side.

They certainly looked much more powerful now than they had before, and thanks to the boost in strength that the armor offered, they most likely _were._

"So their initiation into the Warriors of Light is complete," Kairi said, looking over the two newest additions to her army. _Perhaps not as powerful as the original three knights,_ she thought, _But still more than enough to deal with a certain group of nuisances..._

Zenos seemed to be thinking the same thing as he entered the throne room, followed shortly afterward by the other two knights. Unlike Donald and Goofy, their weapons were nowhere to be seen--they could simply dematerialize them when they weren't needed.

"My Queen," Zenos said, bowing in front of Kairi's throne, "I believe it is time for us to deal with Maleficent."

"Indeed... the witch has gone unchecked for far too long," Kairi said, looking at Zenos first and then turning her gaze to Donald and Goofy. "And of course, there are now two warriors among us who have fought her many times before..."

"Donald and Goofy," Zenos said, turning to look at the two for a second, "Yes... they _have_ had a bit of past experience with Maleficent. But are they really powerful enough to defeat her alone?"

"It is unlikely," Kairi said, pausing for a second. Her eyes glowed slightly, and she turned to Donald and Goofy again for a second before continuing. "However, that will not be a problem--they will not be attacking her alone. As they do not yet know how to activate the Door to Light, someone who _does_ will have to accompany them."

Zenos bowed once again, then turned to Donald and Goofy, who both saluted him and then bowed in front of Kairi.

"It will be done, my Queen," he said, before taking a step back and holding out his hand toward Donald and Goofy. The two looked around for a second, but before they had a chance to ask what was going on, a glowing door appeared in the air in front of them. They quickly hopped into it, disappearing from view, and then Zenos followed as the door began to fade away.

* * *

Pete paced back and forth in the halls of the Castle That Never Was, occasionally looking out one of the windows at the vast ocean below it. Maleficent's mood had picked up significantly after their conquest of Atlantica, but she was now quickly going back to her usual self again--and Pete had no intention of getting blasted or caught on fire again, so he had been staying as far away from her as possible.

He waddled down the hallway once again, passing several of the rooms now inhabited by Maleficent's allies in the process. The rooms had been occupied by Organization XIII once, but now there was hardly any trace of them left in the castle--the Nobody symbols had been swapped for the much-more-colorful Heartless symbols, the shiny white-and-gray color scheme had been repainted with more purples and blacks, and all of those weird machines and such had been either removed or wiped of all Organization-related data. What was the point in keeping a bunch of stuff about the Organization if they were all dead, anyway?

Pete passed by Oogie Boogie's room--he had been ressurrected _again_ by Maleficent, and had redecorated his room to resemble his old place back at Halloween Town. A tiny, worm-like critter crawled along the floor in front of him, and Pete was about to stomp on it before he realized (while his foot was already in the air above the bug) that it was probably part of Oogie's insides, sent off somewhere to spy on somebody. He lost his balance and fell backwards onto his butt, causing a loud _crash_ and frightening the little bug so badly that it actually jumped up off of the ground a few inches before speeding back into the room as fast as it could crawl.

After he had gotten back up onto his feet again, he walked past the rooms belonging to another group of Maleficent's allies. First was Ursula--she, too, had been returned to life by Maleficent's magic, and was currently busy polishing the trident that now hung on her wall. On the other side of the room, there was a large aquarium with a cluster of strange-looking plant-like things growing from the bottom of it. For a second, Pete almost thought he saw _faces_ on them, but then he shook his head and kept on walking.

After that he passed Prince John's room--it was empty, since he had been left behind on another world to make sure that world's residents remained under Maleficent's control. Since the door was open and unguarded, Pete waddled on in, grabbed a few piles of coins and some kind of pastry, and then left before anyone had a chance to notice.

He was supposed to be on guard duty, of course, but nobody had attacked them yet--not even that annoying brat Sora and his sidekicks, who everyone was sure would show up sooner or later.

"No need for guards if nobody's attackin' us, right?", Pete said (with a mouth full of that pastry he had swiped) as he passed by another room. There was a quick laugh from the room, though Pete didn't bother to check who had been inside, preferring to count his stolen coins as he walked further down the hall.

Unfortunately for Pete, somebody _was_ about to attack them.

Just as Pete rounded the corner of the next hallway, a glowing-white door appeared at the other end of it, near where Ursula's room was. Three armored figures stepped out of it, with the largest of the three summoning a Keyblade as he entered.

"So those who lurk in the Darkness have stolen a castle from the Nobodies," Zenos said, looking down the hall as the light from the door slowly faded. Donald and Goofy nodded, having seen the castle before--though with a very different paint job.

"How appropriate. Soon, they will be just as nonexistent as their castle's former owners."


	75. Chapter 70: The Long Road

**Chapter 70**

"In case you've forgotten," Zenos said, pointing his Keyblade to Ursula, "The trident only provides its holder with power over _the sea._"

"And this castle's up in the air!", Donald added, waving his staff around and quacking angrily. As if it wasn't obvious enough already.

In a second, all three of the Warriors of Light were on the attack. Zenos swung his Keyblade down toward the octopus-woman, and it clashed against the stolen trident. Donald and Goofy attacked while Ursula was occupied with blocking Zenos, zapping her with Thunder spells and slamming her with their weapons.

And then, Ursula lowered her guard for just a bit too long.

Zenos swung his Keyblade down at the trident--_hard_--and there was a loud crack that seemed to echo throughout the room. The two weapons seemed to grind against each other for a few seconds, but then, finally, one of them won out. The trident snapped in half, and immediately Ursula was surrounded by electricity, flailing uncontrollably and dropping half of the trident onto the floor. The dropped half shattered into a million pieces and then disappeared.

Zenos, Donald, and Goofy walked out of the room just in time to avoid the explosion that followed, and then took one last look into the room before moving on to the next.

Judging by the burn marks on the floor and rubble lying everywhere, Ursula was no longer going to be a problem.

* * *

Michiko sat down in the middle of the path outside of Castle Oblivion, exhausted from hours of walking. Otonashi had already stopped a few yards ahead, and was sitting at the top of a small, grassy hill. They had finally decided to go looking for a way to meet up with the rest of the Organization, but it was not going well.

"How far do you think we've gone now?", Michiko asked, looking over toward the hill. Otonashi shrugged--he wasn't familiar with the Twilight World at all. In fact, this was the first time he'd ever been outside of Castle Oblivion besides the few minutes he spent lying on the ground immediately after he first arrived. He didn't even know where they were going, let alone how far they'd gone.

"No idea," he said, "We passed that crossroads you mentioned a while back, so we should be getting close to--"

He stopped in mid-sentence, remembering that Michiko's hometown no longer existed. Fortunately, Michiko didn't seem to notice that he had almost mentioned it.

The two of them sat in the grass along the side of the road for about half an hour, having a small snack and a drink while they rested and talking about where they would go. Michiko was sure that if they just kept walking they'd figure out how to get to another world _eventually_--it always turned out that way, especially when weird things were going on. Otonashi shrugged again, not sure if he could really believe that or not, and then stood up to start walking again.

* * *

Pete nearly jumped out of his pants as an explosion rocked the entire floor of the castle, causing him to drop his stolen coins. The coins spilled all over the floor, some falling into cracks or off of balconies, and Pete scrambled to collect them all, throwing himself onto the floor to keep the last few from rolling off the edge.

And then he turned around. At the other end of the hallway were Donald and Goofy, covered head-to-toe in heavy-looking golden armor and wielding dangerous-looking new versions of their usual weapons. Pete had left his own armor and weapons behind, so he did what he always did in an emergency--he summoned some Heartless to do his dirty work for him.

Dark portals opened up all over, and swarms of Shadow Heartless poured out of them. Goofy charged, throwing the creatures aside in all directions and slamming them into the walls with a single blow each, while Donald stood back and began chanting the words for a spell. A massive, orange-red explosion suddenly formed in the middle of the Heartless, sending the black bugs flying across the room in pieces and completely destroying a chunk of the floor.

And then, as the smoke and dust left behind by the Flare spell began to clear out, a third armored figure came around the corner of the hallway--a tall, muscular-looking humanoid carrying a massive Keyblade. Pete panicked.

"Er... uh... _Sora!?_ Is... is that _you!?_"

"I'm afraid not," Zenos said, pointing his Keyblade at Pete. The end of the blade began to glow brightly, and Pete didn't bother to stay around to see what happened next. He immediately forgot all about his coins, dropping them all over the floor, and ran as fast as his fat, stubby legs could carry him.

* * *

Michiko and Otonashi walked on, carefully avoiding the ruins that were left in the place of Michiko's hometown. Several minutes of walking through the grass passed, and then they came upon the road again, curving slightly away from the town.

"So," Otonashi said, "How do you think we'll find a way to another world from here?"

Michiko shrugged slightly, then turned back toward Otonashi.

"Hard to tell," she said, looking back to the road in front of her, "Maybe we'll find someplace where they still have a Gummi Ship."

"And you think they'll just hand it over?"

"Nah, probably not... but we can always borrow one, right?"

"Hmm," Otonashi said, "More like _steal_ one... but it _is_ for something important, at least."

A few more minutes passed, with neither of them speaking. Michiko looked down at the ground for a second, and when she looked up, there was _something_ floating in the air over the path ahead of them.

"What the..."

The two carefully walked down the path toward the strange spot in the air, and as they came closer the shape of it got clearer. It seemed to be a glowing, partly-transparent circle floating in the air a few feet off the ground, slowly spinning around in place.

And then, slowly at first, it began to shift shape. First a triangle, then a square, spinning faster and faster as it headed toward the ground. It shifted into a pentagon; Michiko dove away from it, as if she had expected the thing to explode upon contact with the path, but Otonashi just stood and watched.

The strange shape in the air transformed one more time--into a hexagon--before it touched the ground and flattened out. There was a shaft of silvery-blue light from that spot on the ground, and then a tall, man-shaped figure rose up out of it, standing with its arms crossed and apparently looking at Michiko, who was pulling herself back up to her feet and brushing the dust off of her cloak.

Michiko immediately summoned her Keyblade, and Otonashi followed shortly afterward, bringing his fishing-pole-like whip flashing into existence in his hands. The strange figure held out one hand toward them, motioning for them to put down their weapons, and then spoke.

"So... you are the new members of the Organization," the figure said, looking at the two of them. After a few minutes of looking them over, the figure crossed its arms again. Michiko lowered her Keyblade slightly, seeing that this mysterious stranger didn't seem to be a threat after all.

"And you seek to join your allies in the World of Light, am I correct?"

Michiko nodded, then took a step toward the strange man.

"Yeah," she said, "That's what we were just doing. You're in the way."

She stood and tapped her foot on the ground slightly, waiting, but the figure did not move. Otonashi stepped forward and was about to say something, but he was interrupted.

"Am I in the way?", the figure said, looking directly at the two, "Or perhaps I _know_ the way. You'll never know if you only keep walking."

The figure shifted to the side slightly, as if letting the other two pass, and then just stood and stared at them. At least, it _seemed_ like it would be staring at them--there were no visible eyes, only the outline of a face that seemed to be made of the same flickering, silvery-blue energy that they had seen before. Michiko began to walk past the strange being, but Otonashi lagged behind a bit.

"Michiko," he said, "I think we should see what this guy has to say."

She stopped, then turned around slightly. The figure turned toward her, seeming to be waiting for something.

"Well... okay," she said, dematerializing her Keyblade and walking back toward Otonashi again, "I guess."

The figure held out one hand over the path, and slowly a swirling, purplish-black portal appeared. Then, before either Michiko or Otonashi could step into it, a glowing-white door appeared in the same place. The two portals clashed against each other in midair, creating silvery-blue energy in the places where the two intersected.

And then there was a flash, and the two portals were gone, replaced by a series of glowing hexagons that were slowly rising up from the spot on the ground where they had been.

"Step in," the figure said, waving its hands slightly and causing the hexagons to speed up, "Those you seek to reunite with are headed to another world within the World of Light at this very moment. If you enter the portal now, you will arrive shortly before they do."

Michiko and Otonashi nodded, and Otonashi dematerialized his weapon before taking a step toward the odd-looking portal. They both stared at it for what seemed like at least a minute before finally, Otonashi took a step into the area between the glowing hexagons.

A shaft of light shot up from the ground, and Otonashi's body flashed for a second before disappearing. Michiko continued to stare at the portal, then took a step toward it as well.

"Go on," the mysterious entity said, "It will only last another few minutes."

Michiko looked at the odd portal once again, watching the hexagons drift up from the ground a few feet only to disappear in midair, and then, finally, hopped into the space between them. There was another flash, all around her this time, and soon she had disappeared from the road and was flying off through a strange space, surrounded by silvery-blue energy.

Several minutes passed, and the strange figure waved his hand again, causing the hexagon-portal to vanish entirely. Shortly afterward, he had disappeared as well, and the old dirt road was empty once again.


	76. Chapter 71: The Pride Lands

**Chapter 71**

Kairi stood in front of the orb of Light once again, holding one hand close to each side of it and concentrating. Occasionally, the orb would grow brighter for a second, dimming shortly afterward but ending up slightly brighter than before. Now that the Door to Darkness was reopened, the development of the final part of Gil-Neithev's plan was slowed--but it was far from stopped.

"It looks like they are having no difficulty dealing with Maleficent's goons," Sofia said, walking into the room just as the orb grew bright again for a second.

"Yep," Vasilios said from the other side of the room, behind Kairi, "Every time they knock one of 'em off, it flares up like that. Shouldn't be too much longer until it's all over."

The orb flashed especially bright, signifying that a more powerful member of Maleficent's group of Darkness-obsessed followers had been killed. It dimmed slowly once again, but even afterward it was visibly brighter--and even a bit larger--than it was before.

"Yes... it shouldn't take much longer now," Kairi said, staring into the orb with her glowing eyes, "Once Maleficent herself is dealt with... the final step will be almost ready to begin."

* * *

Vexen's ship touched down ontop of an oddly-shaped rock formation, locking itself in position with several clamp-like tools that emerged from the bottom of it. Though the rock was flat on top--or at least, flat enough to land on--it stuck up at a strange angle, so just letting the ship sit on it would probably not have been a good idea.

Everyone looked out their windows, most of them seeing an unfamiliar landscape covered in grasses and occasionally a small tree. There were other rock formations around--the one that Vexen had used for a makeshift landing strip seemed to be just a part of a much larger mountain--and somewhere in the distance, there seemed to be a jungle or some other sort of forested area.

"This place looks familiar," Zexion said, staring out one of the windows and trying to remember where, exactly, he recognized the world from. He at first thought that maybe he had visited it when he was lacking a body, but that didn't seem right--he had not spent much time in the World of Light then, as most of the more interesting things to watch were happening in the other two Worlds.

"Well, this looks like the Pride Lands to me," Mickey said, standing up on his seat so he could see out one of the windows, "Never been there myself, but from what Donald and Goofy said, it looks about right."

And then Zexion remembered--this was a world he had visited on a mission for the Organization, in the years before the Castle Oblivion incident. The mission itself was fairly simple--investigate the properties of hearts belonging to other species. The problem, of course, was that the world was almost entirely devoid of technology, so he was forbidden from bringing any sort of machine to monitor such things. In the end, he had to resort to siccing a swarm of Heartless on a lone hippopotamus and watching the unsuspecting hippo's heart to see if it behaved any differently than that of a human.

Needless to say, it didn't, and there was soon a very large and very powerful Heartless loose on the savannah. He had managed to seal it inside a cave, but it probably wouldn't have been long before it escaped--or was set free.

Seeing the world in good condition--and with no signs of massive destruction caused by a certain Heartless--was a relief. But before he had a chance to wonder what had happened to that Heartless he had accidentally created--or what a hippo's Nobody would look like--he was interrupted by Mickey.

"So, you figured out where you recognize the place from?"

"Yes," Zexion answered, turning away from the window, "I came here on a mission for the Organization a long time ago, that's all. But I _did_ remember one thing that might be a problem."

"A problem?", Mickey asked, looking over toward Zexion, "What kinda problem?"

"Well, besides the Shin'an," Roxas added in.

"For one thing, there are very few humans on this world," Zexion said, briefly looking out the window again between words, "If we want to blend in at all, we'll have to somehow change into forms that more closely resemble the world's native inhabitants."

* * *

Zenos' Keyblade slammed down, tearing open the burlap sack that gave Oogie Boogie his shape and spilling bugs all over the floor. Donald and Goofy jumped at the pile of wriggling insects like a pair of kids jumping into a pile of dry leaves, stomping their armored feet and crushing as many as possible. Those that tried to escape the room were killed instantly by small beams of Light, fired from the tip of the tallest knight's Keyblade.

Several minutes of clanking and squishing later, and there was not much left of Oogie Boogie besides the empty bag that was lying, encrusted in bug guts, on the floor.

Donald and Goofy stepped up to the room's door and wiped their feet on the rug several times before leaving, and Zenos followed shortly afterward.

* * *

And, at the other end of the same hallway, Pete was still running for his life. Well, "running" didn't exactly describe Pete's movement--it was actually a lot closer to "waddling very fast." After passing by several more rooms, Pete finally came to the part of the castle he was looking for--the path leading up to the next floor, where (he hoped) the knights wouldn't follow him.

Needless to say, he wasn't much safer there than he was on the previous floor. Though the three knights were not there yet, the floor was infested with glowing whitish insects. Pete had no idea what they were, but the fact that they all turned to face him as soon as he came into the hallway was enough to let him know that they were probably dangerous.

"Uh... what kinda Heartless are you guys?", he muttered, still not quite realizing exactly what these new creatures were, "Aren't ya supposed ta be black, or somethin'?"

Though Pete had more experience with Heartless than with these new creatures, he was still _far_ from being an expert on the creatures. In fact, Pete was still blissfully unaware of exactly how Heartless came into existence, even after all these years as one of Maleficent's lackeys.

Another explosion rocked the castle, and Pete noticed some cracks forming in the floor ahead of him. The glowing creatures started to creep toward him, and he backed away from them, back toward the passage down to the previous floor. After a few more seconds of backing away slowly and carefully, he turned around and starting speed-waddling away.

...and with a loud _CLANG,_ he ran face-first into the tallest of the three knights' armor.

"You guys again!?", Pete said, nearly falling over backwards but somehow managing to catch his balance. He turned around, seeing that the glowing-white bugs were coming closer, then gulped and tried to summon more Heartless.

There was a small "poof" of Darkness, and a single measly Shadow Heartless appeared in front of the swarm of white creatures. They immediately pounced on the darker-colored bug, and with another small "poof" of Darkness (and a brief sight of a glowing, pinkish-colored heart drifting upward), the hall was Heartless-free once again.

"Wh-wh-what!? What's goin' on?", Pete said, looking around in a panic, "Where'd they all go!? Just this morning there was _hundreds_ of 'em in here!"

Zenos took a step toward Pete, holding out his Keyblade with both hands, and then spoke.

"More like thousands," he said, readying his weapon and looking down toward Pete, "I counted."

Pete didn't have a chance to say anything before he was clubbed in the chest by Zenos' heavy Keyblade. The wind was immediately knocked out of his lungs, and he went flying down the hall, slamming into several of the white insects on the way and sending them flying into the walls before disintegrating into glowing-white dust.

The last thing Pete saw before he was knocked completely unconscious was a grayish-purple metal wall speeding toward him.

* * *

"Well," Zexion said, looking to each of the others in the ship before turning his gaze back out of the ship's window, "I _should_ be able to give each of us a convincing-enough alternate form using my illusion powers... but there _is_ one little problem with that plan."

Everyone turned toward him, wondering what he meant by that. After several seconds of waiting, it was Mickey who finally decided to ask.

"Another problem, huh?", he asked, "What's wrong this time?"

"Well... to make the illusion convincing enough," Zexion said, "_And_ to spread it between each of us... I'll have to keep from using much energy for anything else. I'll probably need to stay in the ship and not move very much for it to work."

"Well," Roxas said, "You still have that communicator Vexen made, right?"

Zexion nodded, and Vexen and Lexaeus both looked down to see their communicators, which were also still attached and--as far as anyone could tell--functioning properly.

"You can keep in contact with us with that," Roxas said, "And if Vexen locks the doors to the ship, or something like that, there shouldn't be any problems."

"Hmm... sounds like it should work," Zexion said, "I can't imagine Vexen building a ship without locks on the doors, at least."

Upon hearing this, Vexen, who was currently having a small snack, choked on a chunk of avocado.

"It might take a while to set up, though," he continued, ignoring Vexen, "So everyone should stay inside the ship until everything is ready."

Everyone agreed, and the sat down in their seats, motionless, while Zexion began weaving his illusions.


	77. Chapter 72: Maleficent's Last Battle

**Chapter 72**

Michiko and Otonashi flew through what appeared to be a tunnel of silvery-blue light, moving at what felt like an incredible speed and occasionally turning in different directions. Neither of them made any attempt to move on their own, but apparently that wasn't necessary--the tunnel of energy around them did all the movement for them.

They didn't have much time to get used to it, however. Less than a minute passed before they emerged from the strange portal that they had traveled through, and they weren't ready for it. Otonashi flew out of the portal and face-first into a patch of soft, dark-colored dirt. He was about to get up when suddenly Michiko came flying out on top of him, smashing him back down into the dirt again.

"Well," he mumbled, brushing the larger clumps of dirt off of his cloak after Michiko had moved, "That's _one_ good thing about wearing black cloaks all the time..."

"Where are we?", Michiko asked, looking all around her. Apparently, they were in some sort of forest with strange trees that didn't look like any she had ever seen. Otonashi felt a little more familiar with the jungle's trees, since his home was a tropical island, but he was just as clueless about where they had landed.

"Hard to tell," he said, looking around at the strange trees and other plants, "But that weird guy we met on the road said the others are here somewhere. We'd better go looking for them before they move on."

There was a crunch, like someone stepping on a twig, and the two of them spun around, looking for the source of the sound. A few quiet swishing sounds followed, but there was nobody around as far as Michiko and Otonashi could see.

They looked around again for several minutes, trying to decide which direction to head off in, and then started walking, completely unaware that they were being followed...

* * *

Another explosion rocked the walls of the Castle That Never Was, and in the room that once belonged to the leader of Organization XIII, Maleficent nearly fell out of her chair. Diablo, her pet raven, began squawking and flapping around like crazy, clawing and pecking at the bars and trying desperately to get out of his birdcage. He knew what was coming.

Maleficent, calm as usual despite her decreasing sanity, got out of the chair she had been sitting in and picked up her staff, then walked slowly to the door. There were sounds of a battle taking place further down the hall--probably some of her recently-acquired allies making a last stand against the invading warriors of Light.

There was a sound of metal breaking, followed by horrible, echoing scream--despite the fact that it was clearly in Goofy's not-very-frightening voice, it made Maleficent shiver a bit. This was followed by another explosion, which shook the room again. Diablo's cage fell and broke open, allowing the panicked bird to fly out a nearby window to his freedom.

Maleficent made no attempt to stop him--in fact, for a second she thought of running away as well, but the thought quickly faded when the sounds of battle became louder and closer. Goofy's voice was still present among the grunts and battle cries, despite the scream from earlier that made it sound like he was dying. Flashes of light were visible through the crack under the door--a bright white light occasionally, with the familiar yellow and red lights of Thunder and Fire magic in between. Occasionally there were purplish flashes that signified the use of Darkness, but they didn't last long before those who had caused them were cut down by the three knights.

And then, Maleficent reached up and swung open the door. The three knights--Donald Duck, Goofy, and a tall man that she didn't recognize--turned in her direction, and slowly began to walk toward her, holding their weapons.

"Maleficent!", Donald yelled, stating the obvious as usual. Goofy held his shield forward, while Zenos simply rested his Keyblade on his shoulder and stood perfectly still.

"So, you choose to fight even after hearing the rest of your allies destroyed," Zenos said, "Fool... how can you hope to face the wrath of Light itself?"

For a second, a thought of Xehanort flashed through Maleficent's mind, and then she took a step toward the knights and readied her staff. Zenos laughed.

"This will all be over much faster if you just give up now," he said, still standing with his Keyblade over his shoulder.

"I won't... we won't give in to you," Maleficent said, her staff beginning to glow with a strange, greenish light, "So long as even the tiniest shred of Darkness remains."

"_We?_", Zenos said, "But you're alone. Most of your allies are dead, and that overweight fool is currently lying unconscious against a wall downstairs. You have nobody left to defend you now."

"Perhaps," she said, taking another step forward, "But I'm afraid you don't realize what my dark magic is capable of..."

Donald and Goofy both jumped back slightly, readying their weapons for battle, but Zenos remained still. Then, once again, he began to laugh slightly, the sound echoing within his helmet.

"Hmph," he said, bringing his Keyblade off of his shoulder and holding it out in front of him, "What can your magic do? _Kill_ us, perhaps? I'm afraid that won't be enough."

"You'll see," Maleficent said, raising her staff over her head and saying something under her breath. The green glow around the staff intensified, and then suddenly it leapt forth and surrounded Zenos. For several seconds, the knight was surrounded by a bright green glow, which slowly faded away. There was a heavy _thud_ as the knight's body fell to the floor, and then it disappeared in a flash of light.

"Uh-oh," Donald said, backing away slowly at first and then breaking into a full-speed run down the hall. Goofy almost tripped over his own armor trying to back away as well, and then turned around and followed Donald in running away.

Maleficent began to laugh to herself, first quietly and then raising to an insane, shrieking cackle. She lowered her staff back to the floor and began to walk back to her room, convinced that she had driven away the knights for good.

As she sat down in her chair, a glowing door of Light appeared directly in front of one of the windows behind her, and shortly afterward, Zenos drifted to the floor, appearing to be alive and completely unharmed.

The witch heard Zenos' armored feet touch the ground, and stood up immediately. She picked up her staff and spun around to attack again, but before she could do anything, the knight's Keyblade came swinging down and her staff was reduced to splinters.

"As I said before," Zenos said, raising his Keyblade to strike, "Through the power of Gil-Neithev, death no longer has any hold on us... you can kill us time and time again, but we will always return."

A bright, yellowish-white light began to surround Zenos' Keyblade, causing Maleficent to flinch at the sight of it.

"You, however," he said, looking down at Maleficent, "Will die... and you will stay dead."

The gigantic Keyblade came down like a guillotine, and almost immediately Maleficent was dead. The yellowish-white light grew even brighter and surrounded the dead witch's body, and slowly her heart emerged, glowing pink and spinning slowly as it drifted through the air, floating up toward the Keyblade. A pinkish glow surrounded the weapon for a second, and then was quickly absorbed.

Donald and Goofy came running back toward Zenos as they heard his footsteps in the hallway. They were amazed to see him alive and well--they had not yet died, so they hadn't known he would simply come back when killed. They both stood back and watched as Zenos raised his Keyblade high into the air above his head, then brought it down into the floor of the castle. A massive shockwave went through the castle, and several explosions from deep within followed.

The devices that kept the castle afloat in midair were destroyed, and immediately the entire building began to fall toward the sea below. Zenos held out his hand and formed a large, glowing door of Light, and the other two knights quickly hopped into it. Zenos waited for several minutes, and upon hearing the sound of the castle splashing down into the oceans of Atlantica, he stepped through the door as well.

Maleficent's reign of terror had ended, but something far worse would soon begin.

* * *

Xehanort and Riku stepped out of the Dark Passage onto familiar-looking blue stone. They had arrived on the world where it had all began--Radiant Garden, former home of Ansem the Not-Particularly-Wise and the site where the first Heartless-creating experiments took place.

The two stood on a cliff overlooking the town of Radiant Garden itself, which the world took its name from. It was the capital city of the world, restored almost to its former glory. The old castle where Maleficent had taken up residence had been torn down and rebuilt in the years since Riku had been there last, and it was now the headquarters of Radiant Garden's new government. Xehanort looked over the cliffs, canyons, and valleys of blue stone that surrounded the city, and was surprised to see that various places he remembered from his time on the world were still in one piece.

The most surprising thing, however, was the absence of Shin'an. Even from this high point above the city, not a single one of the glowing, white-skinned insects could be seen--though there were several small Heartless wandering about on the outskirts, and for a second Riku even thought he had seen a Dusk wiggling through the air.

"Looks like someone beat us to it," Riku said, looking out over the oddly Shin'an-less world, "None of those glowing bugs anywhere."

"Then we should be glad that we have allies in the World of Light," Xehanort said, turning to Riku, "When I had to face Gil-Neithev alone, few in this World were on my side. Most worlds had already fallen to Gil-Neithev--they welcomed him and his Shin'an with open arms."

"Good thing it's not that way this time around," Riku said, reaching into his coat and gripping the handle of the Way to the Dawn, "I don't know if I could handle it if everyone I knew was my enemy..."

Xehanort flinched, remembering that Riku did not yet know exactly how bad the situation was on his homeworld. Naminé had told Xehanort what had happened--Kairi was possessed by Gil-Neithev, Sora was being controlled, and the majority of the population now worshipped Gil-Neithev as a god--but she had not informed Riku, probably out of fear that having to fight his friends would be too much for him.

For a second, Riku noticed that Xehanort seemed oddly silent. But fortunately for Xehanort, he didn't bother to ask why.

* * *

Zexion opened his eyes to a very different group than the ones who had been in the ship when he began. Roxas was now in the form of a young lion, old enough to grow a short but oddly-spiky mane but not quite fully-grown yet. Vexen now looked like an old, skinny-looking lion with a pointy snout, light-colored fur, and a shaggy brown mane.

Lexaeus had stepped outside before taking on his new form, and considering the size and shape of the form he had taken, that was a smart decision. He was now a large, brownish-gray rhinoceros with a horn that was shaped similarly to the blade of his tomahawk.

And finally, King Mickey was still a large mouse--but now, rather than standing on two legs, he stood on all fours, and his royal clothes had vanished, replaced by several patches of reddish-colored fur. His head was less round and his nose a bit more pointed, and his tail had become longer and thicker.

After becoming used to their new forms for several minutes--Roxas swinging around one of his two Keyblades using his mouth, Vexen becoming used to fighting with his new claws rather than the shield he could no longer use, Lexaeus figuring out how to angle his head to strike with his "tomahawk-horn," and Mickey mastering the art of wielding a Keyblade with his tail--the four left the area where the spaceship was parked, leaving Zexion alone inside to concentrate on maintaining the illusionary forms that the others had taken.


	78. Chapter 73: More Ways Than One

**Chapter 73**

Zenos, Donald, and Goofy walked out of the glowing door, emerging back in the room where the orb of Light was located. Kairi was still standing in front of it in a trance-like state, holding one hand on each side of the orb and staring into its center. She seemed to see something in the orb that no one else could see.

Vasilios and Sofia were standing on the other side of the room, also watching as Kairi stared endlessly into the orb. Apparently, she had been doing this the whole time they had been gone, as the other two knights were barely paying attention to her anymore, instead looking out the window.

"My Queen," Zenos said, breaking the silence that filled the room, "We have eliminated Maleficent's legions of Darkness."

Kairi's hands fell limply to her sides for a second, and she looked as if she was about to fall over. Zenos took a step toward her to break her fall, but there was no need--before he could reach her, Kairi had snapped out of it and stood up once again, no longer staring into the orb of Light.

"Good," she said, "Maleficent's destruction should have vastly weakened the forces of Darkness within this World... however, it seems we still have much more to do before the final step can begin."

"What?", Zenos said, "But how? Maleficent and her allies were the last major forces of Darkness in the World of Light... the Light should be stronger than ever."

"And it is," Kairi said, her voice echoing and becoming so distorted that it was nearly unrecognizable, "But it seems there is one problem... a problem I was not able to see before."

Kairi took several steps away from the orb, looking over each of the knights and spending a bit more time staring at Donald and Goofy. She then returned to staring into the orb of Light, and once again she spoke.

"Someone has been acting against us without our knowledge," she said. The orb of Light sparked and flickered for a second, and Kairi's eyes seemed to glow in response.

"But as the Darkness is cleared away," she continued, "My sight has expanded... I can now see into the Twilight World, and into the decayed shell of a World that once was."

The room was silent for several seconds, with only Kairi--or, more accurately, Gil-Neithev--knowing what any of this meant. Finally, one of the five knights in the room spoke up--it was Goofy.

"So, um, who's this new enemy again?", he asked, scratching his head slightly.

"A master of disguise, it seems," Kairi said, "I cannot yet tell his true identity... but it seems as if I have met him before."

She paused for several seconds, staring into the glowing orb and seeming to concentrate on something inside once again. And then, she turned away from the orb, walking out of the room entirely and heading off in the direction of the room where Sora and Yen Sid were staying.

As she walked through the halls, she said one more thing--this time in more of a strange, echoed whisper.

"Perhaps... in more ways than one..."

* * *

Lexaeus swung his head to the side, and immediately three Shin'an were snapped in half by his tomahawk-shaped horn. Though his range was a bit limited in his new form, he was just as capable of fighting--perhaps even a bit stronger, though it was hard to tell. Nearby, a flying Shin'an swooped down at Vexen, but was quickly knocked out of the sky by Mickey's Keyblade before it could come close enough to strike. Several more cricket-like Shin'an approached Roxas from all sides, but he just held his Keyblade with his mouth and spun around rapidly, sending them all flying backward away from him.

Vexen and a Shin'an leapt at each other in midair, and seconds later an ice sculpture that closely resembled the creature fell to the ground, shattering into a million pieces afterward and quickly dissolving into white, glowing dust. Though the others were mostly impaired by their new forms (besides Lexaeus, who could probably fight well in almost any form), Vexen actually seemed _more_ powerful as a lion than he ever was in his original form.

"Looks like they've cleared off a little, now," Roxas said, looking around the grasslands for any remaining Shin'an and balancing his Keyblade in his tail so it didn't get in the way of his ability to talk.

"From this area, at least," Vexen said, walking off away from the scene of the battle and looking back, "This _is_ a fairly large world, remember. It's likely that there are others elsewhere."

"Right," Mickey said, twirling his Keyblade with his tail as he walked, "If these things are anything like Heartless, they're gonna be all over the place."

And with that, the odd little group of two lions, a giant mouse, and a rhinoceros headed off across the savannah, searching for more Shin'an to rid the world of.

* * *

Meanwhile, almost on the opposite side of the world, Michiko and Otonashi were growing increasingly paranoid. The further they walked through the jungle, the more footsteps they seemed to hear around them, and the more they felt like someone was attempting to follow them. Unfortunately, it was impossible to tell whether anyone was actually there--neither of them had any experience with traveling through jungles, and they had not seen any sign that anyone was following them. There were only sounds behind them and a feeling of being watched.

"We'd better have our weapons ready, just in case," Michiko said, summoning her Keyblade in a silvery-white flash. Otonashi nodded, then summoned his whip-like weapon as well. The blade on the end shined slightly, apparently sharper than before now that he had discovered his metal-controlling powers.

They continued to walk through the jungle, occasionally crossing what appeared to be dirt paths as they went, and the sounds of leaves crunching or twigs snapping somewhere around them continued. Now, there was occasionally something that sounded almost like a whisper from somewhere far off--but whenever either of the two turned around to look, there was no sign of anybody there, as always.

And then, suddenly, there was a clicking sound, and Michiko and Otonashi both felt themselves being pulled upward into the air. They had been caught in a trap--a net of some sort--and were now dangling a good ten feet off the ground, hanging from the branches of the tree above them.

"What the hell!?", Michiko yelled out, gripping her Keyblade tighter as she was flipped upside down and tangled up in the net. Otonashi mumbled something as well, shoving against the net and trying to keep himself from getting tangled into an odd position inside of it. The net swayed back and forth in the air for several seconds, and then, slowly, their mysterious pursuers began to appear from behind the trees.

They appeared to be a group of dark-skinned humans, wearing simple clothes and looking up at the net. Two of them held spears, while the rest appeared to be unarmed.

The two spear-wielders stood back while the unarmed members of the group approached the tree that the trap was attached to, carefully lowering the net to the ground while making sure that it remained in one piece. The dark-skinned men spoke to each other in a language that Michiko and Otonashi couldn't understand, then several of them lifted up the net (with their two captives inside) and began to carry them back into the jungle.

"So, you have any plan on how to get us out of here?", Michiko whispered, making sure that only Otonashi could hear her. It was unlikely that their captors could understand their language, but it was better to be safe regardless.

Otonashi nodded--or, at least, it looked like a nod; it was hard to tell when the two of them were barely able to move in the net--and then a familiar grayish light began to glow from his free hand. At first, the ropes began to glow as well, and tiny shards of metal seemed to be sawing away at them. And then, Otonashi's inexperience with his powers became obvious. The tiny shards became knife-sized blades, slashing the ropes to bits in an instant before falling to the ground and disappearing. The blades left many cuts in their clothes as well, sometimes coming dangerously close to their skin.

Almost immediately, Michiko and Otonashi fell to the ground as their captors panicked. The men with spears even backed away a bit--this kind of power was obviously something they had never seen. It was no surprise, considering that they had been living on a remote planet within the World of Light their entire lives--few Nobodies, or _anybody_ with similar powers, ever came to the Pride Lands.

Otonashi quickly realized that, if they just kept lying there on the ground, they were leaving themselves wide open to another attack. So he sprung to his feet and created a giant wall of metal in front of him, just like he had done soon after first discovering his powers. There was a sound of footsteps from the other side of the wall--the men with spears had run away along with the rest. After waiting for several minutes, Otonashi pushed on the metal wall, causing it to tip over and smash into the ground before vanishing entirely.

And then, they walked off in the direction they had been headed before, once again continuing their search for the rest of the Organization.


	79. Chapter 74: On The Horizon

**Chapter 74**

Zexion sat, silent and motionless, in his seat inside Vexen's spaceship, focusing as much of his energy as possible on keeping the illusionary forms that he had given to his allies as solid and convincing as possible. Though Zexion's illusion powers could not truly create anything real, he had trained his powers to a level far beyond that of most members of the Organization, both past and present. The key to the success of his powers was not the amount of power behind each illusion, but _where_ that power was applied.

In this case, as in many others, the real trick to making his illusions seem real was not to strengthen the illusion itself, nor to implant the illusion in the minds of those nearby. No, this was a far more complicated trick--fooling the laws of physics themselves into cooperating and treating the illusion as real.

He was once told that he was the only one of the Organization to have truly mastered his powers--that his powers, technically, were at an even greater level than those of Xemnas. Now that he had actually sat down and thought about exactly what he was doing whenever he used them, he had to agree.

The blue-haired Nobody had been so busy concentrating on what he was doing that the first few slams against the side of the ship's hull went unnoticed. But soon, more and more bumps were coming from outside the ship, and occasionally one would hit so hard that Zexion was shaken in his seat.

"Wha-what's going on!?", Zexion stammered, nearly falling out of his seat when an especially strong shock ran through the ship. He took a quick peek out of the window, and noticed that the sun seemed to be shining directly in so brightly that he couldn't say anything else but the light.

And that was when he realized--that light _wasn't_ the sun. The ship was being surrounded by a massive swarm of Shin'an, so much that only the glow from their bodies could be seen through the window.

After watching the Shin'an for a few more minutes and making sure that each and every entrance to the ship was securely locked, Zexion carefully sat back down and went back to what he was doing before, as if nothing was wrong.

* * *

Mog stood in the void, clutching his spear with one hand. The other hung limp at his side, and his white fur was coated in sweat. Before him was what appeared to be a vague, flickering outline of a massive door, as if there had once been an exit to the World of Nothingness.

But now, when the World itself was nothing but an endless gray void, there was no exit. Those who used the Darkness could help themselves out using the Dark Passage, and those who had mastered the Light could open glowing doors of their own, but those who had neither were helpless to escape.

He had hoped that he would find an exit eventually, but now it seemed that this empty shell of a door was all that was left.

The Moogle jabbed his spear into the space below him and leaned on it with both hands for support. He was exhausted, having gone for days with only a minimal supply of food and water. Though any Moogle could easily outlast a human in a similar situation, he could tell that his time was running out. It was becoming harder and harder to walk with every step he took.

He fell, but as there was no land beneath him, he simply spun in place rather than hitting anything.

Mog was beginning to lose consciousness. The lack of food and water, combined with constant walking for days at a time, was finally getting to him.

In one last desperate attempt, he reached out with his spear toward the shape of the door, seeking something solid to catch onto so he wouldn't be doomed to drifting off away into the void once again.

For just a second, there was a strange blue glow from his spear, lighting up the gray void around him and causing the door-like shape to shimmer and warp as it grew brighter.

And then, everything went black.

* * *

Michiko and Otonashi ran across the savannah, cloaks blowing in the wind behind them as they went. They were finally out of the jungle, so their travel was becoming much easier--and, thankfully, there were no more interruptions. Occasionally one of the creatures would stop and give them a funny look, but unlike the human inhabitants of the world, none of them made any attempt to attack.

It seemed that nearly an hour had passed, and the sun was beginning to set. They stopped for a few seconds under a small tree, looking up at the sky and watching the grassy plains around them for any sign of the other Organization members--or the Shin'an, for that matter--but they saw nothing.

That is, until their eyes came upon the sight of a strange, oddly-shaped rock formation jutting out of the side of a nearby mountain. It was as if a single large slab of rock had been picked up and jabbed into the mountain at an odd angle, creating a flat surface on top where someone might be able to stand. And, it seemed, someone was already there--or, more accurately, some_thing._

"Is that a spaceship?", Michiko asked, having never seen one before. Otonashi shrugged--he hadn't seen any spaceships himself, besides that one time that Riku had shown him what a Gummi Ship looked like--and then began walking in the direction of the mountain.

"Looks like we'll have to find out ourselves," he said, still looking upward as he walked. Michiko looked up at the rock formation for a little while longer, then finally began to walk in that direction as well, following a few feet behind Otonashi.

* * *

Kairi came rushing into the room where Sora and Yen Sid had been staying, but stopped suddenly as the old wizard came running _out_ of the room at almost the same time, with an odd, almost worried expression on his face. The two of them stopped at the door, just short of running into each other, and then Yen Sid stepped back, allowing Kairi to enter the room.

"Yen Sid," she said, walking past him and sitting down at one of the tables, "I have something very important to tell you... I've discovered the cause for the delay in the final step's progress."

"And I, too, have discovered something," the old wizard said, still looking slightly worried, "Or, I should say, _felt_ something. But it cannot be... I was sure that I was the last that remained..."

"What are you saying?", Kairi said, her voice echoing slightly, "What happened?"

"A new Keyblade has come into existence," he said, holding up one hand and waving it slightly. A white, glowing circle carved itself into the ground, and within it, a half-transparent, rotating image of an unfamiliar Keyblade appeared.

"Are you sure?", Kairi asked, looking over the odd Keyblade. Most of the weapon was white or blue-gray in color, though parts of it almost seemed to be made up of--or wrapped in--some type of dark red fabric. "It may only be the lost Keyblade that you spoke of before--the one crafted by the Chaser Enuo."

"I am sure that it is not," Yen Sid said, waving his hand again and causing the image to disappear, "The lost Keyblade of Enuo has existed for many years. This one, however, is newly crafted--I can feel it."

The wizard took several steps around the room, apparently thinking about something. He then turned back to Kairi and continued.

"I have only felt the energy of a Keyblade coming into existence twice before in recent years," he said, "Once, at the point when Riku's Soul Eater went through its transformation into a Keyblade... and another, which you should be well aware of."

Kairi nodded, then held out one hand to her side. A thin line of white light began to emerge from her hand, reaching up to the ceiling and down to the floor. The light grew brighter, expanding to a large pillar of light and illuminating the entire room, then suddenly shrunk itself down into a shape roughly the size of a Keyblade. The smell of ripe paopu fruit filled the room for a second as Kairi's Keyblade finally materialized in her hand.

"Yes, that Keyblade you created ten years ago," he said, "But that one was different, of course. It was born from the Light of Gil-Neithev itself, rather than simply being a metamorphosis of a lesser weapon."

"Yes," Kairi said, dematerializing her Keyblade only seconds after having summoned it. She took a step toward Yen Sid, and her eyes began to glow slightly.

"But what of this new Keyblade?", she asked, staring up at the wizard. Even he, a full-blown follower of Gil-Neithev, seemed to be slightly disturbed at the sight of Kairi's glowing eyes, though he made no effort to back away.

"This strange, blue Keyblade you discovered," Kairi continued, "How was it created?"

"I am not yet certain," Yen Sid said, pacing around the room a little and trying to avoid looking into Kairi's eyes, "But, due mostly to the fact that the rest of the Chasers are no longer with us... I have come to believe it was created in a manner similar to that of Riku's Keyblade."

* * *

Xehanort stood, looking out over the city he had once called home. Riku was sitting on the cliff nearby, having a small snack while he waited for Xehanort to be ready to head off to another world.

For a second, Riku thought he saw a spark of light somewhere off on the horizon, almost like an explosion but smaller and with no sound. When he stopped to look again, the strange light was no longer there--or, at least, no longer bright enough to see from this distance.

And then, before he realized what was even going on, he heard the sound of Xehanort's feet scraping against the rock, as if bracing for an impact.

"Get down!", Xehanort whispered, "And get back from the edge of the cliff. Something's coming..."

Riku crawled backwards away from the cliff's edge, then crouched down behind a rock so that he could watch. Xehanort was still standing on the cliff, staring out at the horizon where the strange light had come from--and where whatever he had seen was coming from, as well. Several seconds passed, and then the light returned--this time, it was somewhat closer, and seemed to be hovering over the city of Radiant Garden, slowly flying toward them.

"Is that... a Shin'an?", Riku asked, looking up toward Xehanort. The taller man didn't move, still staring out at the strange light that was flying toward them.

"It seems so," Xehanort said, not turning his head away from the light, "But it's unlike any Shin'an I've seen before... far more powerful, it seems."

Xehanort held out one hand in front of him, and Darkness swirled together into a shape in his hands. When the wisps of Darkness faded away, he was holding a weapon that resembled a short staff with blades shaped like bat wings--both of them closely resembling a Soul Eater--attached to each end. He whipped the odd double-bladed weapon around in front of him, keeping it positioned as if preparing to block an attack.

And then, with Riku watching from behind the rock, Xehanort waited for the light--and the strange Shin'an within it--to approach.


	80. Chapter 75: A Strange Shin'an

**Chapter 75**

_"Awaken,"_ a voice said, _"There is much work to be done."_

Mog slowly woke up, and found himself lying face-down in an endless field of gray. He was still within the World of Nothingness--still trapped. But, oddly enough, he felt refreshed from his short period of unconsciousness. He could no longer feel dried sweat coating his fur, and his muscles and joints didn't ache from overexertion and dehydration as they had before he had fallen.

He felt the pole of his spear still in his hands, and was surprised that he hadn't dropped it. He noticed a strange blue glow that seemed to fill the area around him, but he couldn't quite make out what was causing it.

And then, finally, he looked down. The weapon in his hand was not the spear he had been holding at all--it was a Keyblade, composed mostly of blue metal but with the occasional bit of white here and there. One of the hand-guards, as well as part of the shaft of the weapon, were wrapped in a dark red fabric that closely resembled the material that Dorga's clothes were made of.

The blue glow he had noticed before was emanating from the Keyblade, and the outline of a door in front of him was responding strangely to it. The shape of the door was twisting and shaking, occasionally glowing blue and shifting back to its original shape for a second.

And then, the voice that had brought him out of unconsciousness spoke again.

"Mog... do you know what this door is?"

The Moogle turned around to find the source of the voice, but there didn't seem to be anyone there. He turned back to the strange door, staring up at it as it warped and gave off another burst of blue light, but was interrupted by the voice once more.

"Mog," it said, "Answer my question. Do you know what this door is?"

Once again he looked around for the source of the voice, but there was no sign of anyone there but himself. He was about to turn around again, but then he spotted something very strange--a glowing, half-transparent hexagon shape floating in the nothingness next to him.

"What?", he said, staring at the strange object, "That voice... was it... _this_ thing?"

"Yes," the voice said, and then suddenly the hexagon drifted downward slightly until it was on the same level as Mog's feet. There was a silvery-blue flash, and then a strange, glowing figure in the shape of a tall man emerged from within the hexagon.

"It was I who helped you before," he said, "When you were nearing death, wandering in the void without food or water."

Mog took a step back, staring at the strange, glowing man. _So that's why I felt so much better when I woke up,_ he thought.

"Now, answer my question," the strange figure continued, "Do you know what this door is?"

Mog thought for a second, occasionally taking a look at the door, before turning back toward the figure and, finally, answering his question.

"I'm not sure," the Moogle answered, looking back at the door once again, "But if it was just a little more... _solid..._ it would look like one of the doors that connects the Worlds."

"Correct," the figure said, raising a hand toward the door, "This place was once the point where this World connected to the World of Light. But when this World was reduced to an empty void... the Door was somehow ruined as well."

"Is there any way out?", Mog asked, looking back at the door for a second.

"Not at this time," the glowing man said, lowering his hand slightly, "However, that problem can be solved soon enough. For several days I have been studying these ruined doors, which once connected this World to others."

"Are you saying... you found a way to open them again?"

"Indeed," the man said, "But it is quite a complicated process..."

He glanced downward at Mog's hand for a second, then continued.

"And it will require the help of a Keyblade."

* * *

Xehanort braced himself, double-bladed Soul Eater held in front of him, as the light flew closer and closer to the cliff where he and Riku were standing. As it finally came within fifty feet of the cliff, a rough outline of its body was visible--it seemed to be shaped somewhat like a man, but with two insect-like wings growing from its back and many tentacles in place of hair, squirming around as the creature flew closer and closer.

"Stand back," Xehanort said, glancing back at Riku for a second. The Shin'an came closer and closer, and it seemed it was about to slam into the cliff below them...

But then, in an instant, it had disppeared in a flash of light. Xehanort stood perfectly still, trying to sense the presence of Light nearby to track the Shin'an, but all that was left was the linging aura of Light that the creature had left behind when it disappeared.

There was another flash of light--this time, in the air above them--and before Riku could even flinch, Xehanort had sped out of the way of the incoming Shin'an. The creature came flying down, but its target was no longer there, so it slammed into the blue rock, causing cracks to form in its surface. The creature leapt to its feet again, swinging one of its hands toward Riku. For a second, it seemed that the thing just didn't realize that Riku was out of its reach--and then, a large blade of glowing energy burst forth from its hand and slammed down into the ground, just barely missing Riku as he rolled out of the way.

Xehanort flew at the Shin'an, slashing at it with both blades of his weapon, and the two of them clashed in midair for several seconds, Xehanort's blades locked against the Shin'an's energy-sword. The Shin'an attempted to shove him away, but Xehanort flew upward and slammed one end of the double-bladed weapon into its head, severing a few tentacles. The tentacles fell to the ground and dissolved into white powder, but the Shin'an did not react at all.

"Hmm," Xehanort said to himself, between attacks, "Strange. Every other Shin'an I've seen shrieked whenever part of its body was damaged..."

The Shin'an stopped fighting, jumping backwards away from Xehanort. He watched the creature to see if it would make a move, and when no attack came, Xehanort lowered his weapon just enough to show that he wasn't planning on a surprise attack himself.

And, to Xehanort's surprise, the Shin'an spoke.

"That's because I went willingly," it said, its voice sounding oddly familiar to Riku, though Xehanort didn't recognize it.

"After all," it continued, "It was either that or be taken by force... anyone would choose the same."

"And I suppose you had no idea what you were getting into at the time," Xehanort said.

"No," the Shin'an continued, "I fought them at first... but there were too many, and I was alone. The only way to survive was to become one of them."

Xehanort noticed the Shin'an's feet moving slightly, and raised his weapon in front of him. The Shin'an lifted its hand as well, putting the energy-sword's blade in between the two of them.

"If you were so desperate to survive with your free will intact," Xehanort said, "Then why do you obey Gil-Neithev's orders?"

The Shin'an almost seemed to smile for a second, though it was hard to tell as its face was missing a mouth entirely and its eyes were white and insect-like. And then, it shifted into a combat position once again, raising its sword up over its head.

"Who says I'm following Gil-Neithev's orders?", he said, slamming the sword down toward Xehanort.

"It's obvious," Xehanort said in between swings of his own weapon, most of which were blocking the Shin'an's attacks. "You came here to get rid of me for Gil-Neithev's plan. But if you realized where that plan would eventually lead..."

"Darkness will cease to exist," the Shin'an interrupted, "_All_ Darkness, not only within our hearts but throughout all of the Worlds... Gil-Neithev's goal is the same as my own, but on a larger scale."

"Or so you think," Xehanort said, teleporting behind the Shin'an and crippling both of its wings with one powerful slash. "Do you realize what must be done before Gil-Neithev's 'paradise' of Light can be created?"

The Shin'an stopped for a second, and Xehanort took advantage of that opening and sent a massive blast of purplish electricity into the Shin'an's back. What was left of the wings--hardly more than a pair of stubs--was destroyed almost instantly, and the creature was thrown forward off of the cliff.

Xehanort watched for a few minutes, waiting for either a sign of movement or one that the Shin'an was dead. Several more minutes passed, but neither one came. The strange Shin'an--stripped of its original form, but apparently retaining its ability to think for itself--was still lying on the ground where it had landed, almost seeming to be unconscious.

As Xehanort was considering another attack, there was a bright flash, and a glowing door appeared beneath the Shin'an's body. In a second the Shin'an sunk down into the door, and then both were gone, leaving Riku and Xehanort alone on the cliffs overlooking Radiant Garden once again.

* * *

As they approached, it became increasingly obvious to Michiko and Otonashi that something was horribly wrong with the spaceship up on the cliff. When they were finally close enough to see the ship itself, they realized what was wrong: the whole ship was completely covered in Shin'an, swarming over it like angry bees, clawing at its windows and trying to get to whoever was inside.

Otonashi raised up one of his hands, and a grayish glow surrounded one of the Shin'an. A second later, it was coated in metal, and was unable to move well enough to keep its balance on the ship. The metal coating wore off, but the Shin'an was already falling off the edge of the cliff--it was unable to catch itself, and when it hit the ground it exploded into a cloud of white, glowing dust.

"We've got to get them off of the ship," Otonashi said, "But doing it from all the way down here's too slow..."

Michiko nodded, summoning her Keyblade and running up to the side of the mountain. She jumped up, catching herself on a ledge about ten feet off the ground, then ran along a small ridge until she was standing on the flat rock formation where the spaceship was sitting. Otonashi followed, but rather than jumping he swung his whip-like weapon up toward a ledge and pulled himself up by it.

Slowly, the Shin'an began to detect the presence of two Nobodies behind them, and they scuttled off of the ship and onto the rock below it, crawling toward Michiko and Otonashi. Some stayed latched onto the ship, trying to claw their way in but failing miserably, but after several minutes had passed they were far outnumbered by the ones that had decided to go after the new arrivals instead.

Otonashi swung his whip toward a crowd of Shin'an, tangling up one in the weapon and slashing several others. Michiko charged into the swarm, swinging her Keyblade as fast as she could, sending white dust and various pieces of Shin'an flying everywhere. A few of the Shin'an jumped at her to attack, but she did a flip backwards and knocked them out of the air, causing them to fall down ontop of several others and knock them off the edge of the cliff.

A larger Shin'an jumped toward Otonashi, but he summoned up a metal wall in front of them and the creature smashed into it like a bug on a windshield. The silver-haired Nobody then reached out and pushed on the wall, causing it to topple over ontop of that and several other Shin'an, crushing them into dust almost instantly. Michiko swung her Keyblade so hard at a group of Shin'an that when it missed one and hit the ground, it left a deep gash in the rock.

More Shin'an swarmed off of the ship and toward the two Nobodies, but all of them were knocked away with one or two strikes each by Michiko's Keyblade and Otonashi's metal-controlling powers. Before long, the Shin'an had been almost completely cleared from the area, and the ground was coated in whitish dust. The spaceship was also powdered with Shin'an-dust for a few seconds, before the wind picked up a bit and blew it all away as it dissolved away into nothing.

Michiko walked over to the spaceship and peeked into one of the windows, noticing a very familiar-looking blue-haired Nobody sitting alone inside of the ship. She waved at him for a second, but he obviously wasn't paying attention, so she tapped on the window a few times to get his attention.

Zexion jumped slightly, then nearly stood up out of his seat when he saw Michiko, who he thought was still back at Castle Oblivion, standing there and waving at him.

And somewhere off in the savannah, Vexen, Lexaeus, Roxas, and Mickey flickered back to their original forms for several seconds, giving a small group of lions the very odd sight of three black-cloaked humans and a funny-looking bipedal mouse with strange weapons walking through the grasslands. Before any of them could take a second look, Zexion managed to concentrate on his illusions again, returning the group to the disguises they were in previously.

That day, several lions became convinced that they were going crazy and seeing things that weren't there.


	81. Chapter 76: The Statue

**Chapter 76**

It wasn't long before Zexion was finally able to relax, no longer required to keep all of his energy focused on maintaining the illusionary forms of his allies. This was, of course, because they had returned from searching for Shin'an.

"Strange how there were so few Shin'an on this world," Lexaeus said, "After the first group, we didn't see even one of them."

Zexion barely managed to suppress a snicker. There had been plenty of Shin'an in the Pride Lands before--but the group of Nobodies (and one large, Keyblade-wielding mouse) just wasn't in the right area to run into any of them.

"I believe Michiko and Otonashi took care of the rest," Zexion said, looking over at two formerly-empty seats that now housed the newest members of the Organization. "Which reminds me. How, exactly, did the two of you get here?"

Michiko, who had been comparing her Keyblade to Mickey's, looked up toward Zexion, unfortunately causing both Keyblades to fall off of her lap and onto the floor. A second passed, and then they were both back in the hands of their wielders again, disappearing and reappearing like Keyblades always did.

"Well," she answered, "We tried to leave the castle after those knights showed up again, and--"

"They came back _again?_", Roxas interrupted.

"Yes," Otonashi said, "We were no match for them, even with my powers finally working right..."

Vexen's eyes seemed to light up with interest for a second at the mention of Otonashi finally discovering his powers, but rather than interrupting he simply continued to listen and wait for a better time to ask.

"If it wasn't for Gil-Neithev calling them back at the last second, we both would have died," he finished. Then, remembering the moment at which he first became a Nobody, he added another short sentence. "_Really_ died, this time."

By that point, however, not a single person in the spaceship was paying any attention to what Otonashi was saying. Roxas had apparently fallen out of his seat, and was currently lying on the floor, almost completely motionless except for an odd twitch every few seconds. His eyes were open, but had a very strange, glazed-over look to them.

"What's happening to him!?", Mickey asked, jumping down from his own seat and rushing over to the young Nobody's side. Zexion was kneeling in front of Roxas and trying to feel for his pulse and other signs of life, while Vexen and Lexaeus looked on from a short distance away, ready to start up the ship if Roxas' condition required them to leave in a hurry.

"He's alive," Zexion said, "He's breathing, and has a normal pulse... seems to be completely healthy, as far as I can see... whatever's happening to him, there's no physical signs of it."

"Besides that horrible twitching," Michiko said, cringing slightly every time Roxas began to twitch and squirm around on the ship's floor.

For a second, Roxas' skin began to glow slightly, but before anyone could get a second look at the odd glow, it was absorbed into him and seemed to disappear entirely. Roxas stopped twitching, and his eyes closed for several minutes before opening up again, this time without the glazed-over look to them that they had before.

"Wha... what just happened?", Roxas asked, slowly standing up. He seemed a bit shaky at first, but after a second he quickly caught his balance and stood up normally before sitting back down in his seat.

"We were hoping _you_ could tell _us,_" Vexen said, staring at Roxas and trying to determine if there was anything about him that seemed different from before. As far as the old scientist could tell, nothing at all had changed--now that the twitching was over, anyway.

"I'm sorry," Roxas said, "Whatever it was, we shouldn't let it slow us down. Stopping Gil-Neithev is the important thing."

"Well... I suppose you're right," Vexen said, "Though, once this is all over... I'd like to take another look at your condition. A seizure like that simply cannot happen without a good reason..."

* * *

Kairi walked up a long flight of stone steps, followed by Sora. Both were wearing clothes made of white cloth with gold and silver letters from some ancient language all over them; Kairi in a long dress and Sora with a shirt, pants, and a cape. Following a short distance behind them was Kazuki, Sora's father, in his priestly robes.

They stood on one side of a massive crystal statue, depicting some sort of monstrous snake-like creature that seemed to be made of flames. It was wrapped tightly around three nearly-identical globes, and seemed to be crushing inward as if trying to smash them all together into one. Surrounding the statue were people from all over the Destiny Islands, gazing up at their rulers and the crystal statue in awe.

The three knights walked in behind Sora and Kairi through doors of Light, and they were soon followed by Donald and Goofy, also wearing their newly-acquired armor. Kairi's eyes glowed slightly as she looked out over the crowd, going over the names of each and every member of it in her mind and making sure that no one was missing. After she had finished, she turned to the tallest of the three knights and whispered something to him, then walked back to her previous position.

"People of Destiny Islands," she said, looking out over the crowd, "Followers of Gil-Neithev, and of the path of Light... now it is your turn to aid in the battle against the Darkness."

The crowd cheered a little, seeming excited but at the same time slightly confused. How would they, normal people with no special powers or weapons of their own, stand a chance against the Heartless, or against any being of Darkness?

"By this, I do not mean that you will have to fight," she continued, "There are already others quite capable of handling the fighting themselves."

Donald and Goofy saluted, then looked up at Sora for a second, wondering why he hadn't joined them.

"No, what I ask of you is far more simple... it is something all of you can do. All I ask of you is that you bow down before this statue, this mighty symbol of Gil-Neithev, and wish for the Darkness to be lifted from your hearts."

She waved her hands slightly for emphasis, making motions that resembled something rising up and then flying away. The crowd talked amongst themselves for a few seconds, and then, slowly, they begin to bow down in front of the gigantic Gil-Neithev statue.

"Yes... if all hearts are purified," Kairi said, directing the remaining members of the crowd to bow down, "If Darkness is drawn out, and all hearts become full of Light... the true paradise of Light, the world of Gil-Neithev, can finally become possible."

More and more members of the crowd bowed down in front of the statue. Slowly, the entire statue began to light up, glowing brighter and brighter as more people bowed down and wished for their Darkness to leave them. Little by little, specks of blackish-purple energy began to drift up from the crowd, flowing into the statue from all directions. As the last few members of the crowd were purged of Darkness, a black blob began to appear in the center of the statue, wiggling and changing shape as if struggling to escape from its imprisonment.

"All the Darkness that once slept within you," Kairi said, pointing to the crystal statue, "Every last trace of that evil force... is now trapped within that statue, unable to escape. Slowly, it will be destroyed... and transformed. The Darkness will give way to Light... the Light that will lead us to the paradise of Gil-Neithev."

The crowd cheered, watching the squirming blob of Darkness within the statue and their King and Queen looking onward from the platform above them. Several minutes passed, and the five armored Warriors of Light left through glowing doors. Sora, Kairi, and Kazuki followed, walking down the stairs and leaving the cave through another stairway that headed upward.

And then, each and every member of the crowd swarmed out of the cavern in a very insect-like way to return to their everyday lives, never once realizing that it would all be gone if Gil-Neithev got his way.

* * *

And just on the other side of the wall, the surviving members of the Underground watched and listened.

Alekia, lying on the floor and peering through a crack in the wall with her robotic eye, had been the first to discover the hidden chamber where the crystalline statue of Gil-Neithev was kept. Now, most of the higher-ranking members spent a decent portion of their days watching that room--with a few spare computers, hidden cameras, and microphones, they had managed to set up a crude but effective surveillance system, and anything that happened in that room would have been well known, had anything actually happened there.

This day was a little different than usual--something _had_ happened, and from the looks of it, it was a very important and very dangerous "something." Not every word of the Queen's speech could be heard, but from what their system had managed to pick up, they were doing some kind of ritual to remove Darkness from people's hearts.

"This Gil-Neithev business just gets creepier and creepier," Alberto said, watching as Pwibby typed up a partial transcript of the speech, including the crowd's reactions. "And to think, I thought this was gonna be just a local thing... startin' to look like they've already got other worlds into this mess, now."

"And it seems they're planning on something even bigger," Pwibby said, reading over the transcript and trying to fill in the missing words, "Destroying the Darkness and replacing it with Light... who knows what kind of problems that could cause."


	82. Chapter 77: Vandalism

**Chapter 77**

"Be very careful," the strange figure said, staring forward at Mog, "If your aim is off by even a fraction of an inch, we'll have to start over from the very beginning."

Mog held out his newly-acquired Keyblade with both hands, pointing it toward the center of the door-shaped outline in the "wall" of the World of Nothingness. The door was pulsating and shifting to various shapes and colors as the Keyblade came closer and closer to pointing directly at the center, until finally, when the weapon was aimed perfectly, all movement stopped.

A whitish beam shot forward from the Keyblade, the recoil from it nearly making Mog slip, but he braced himself and kept the weapon pointed at the specific place on the door where it had to be pointed for this to work. The beam flew into the door, but instead of hitting the door, it passed through, leaving a tiny hole behind.

Mog lowered his Keyblade slightly, and the hole began to widen. There was a strange sound, almost like something being torn but also somewhat like an old door creaking open after years of disuse. And then, after a bright blue-white flash, the door was an outline no longer.

Standing in front of him was an enormous door, apparently carved out of bluish-white crystal and with various smaller crystals jutting out of the edges. The door itself was almost completely clear, as if made of some sort of oddly-thick glass. It swung open, causing Mog to hop back a little to avoid the massive doors, and beyond it, a dark blue stone platform appeared, floating in space and with oddly-shaped crystals growing out from it in all directions.

"This Door has opened," the strange figure said, breaking up into a swarm of small geometric shapes and disappearing, "Three more yet remain... but that will be dealt with later. As for now... you may rest here. Soon, you too will join the battle against Gil-Neithev..."

* * *

Riku walked through the halls of the building that had grown into the headquarters of Radiant Garden's new government, remembering the state it had been in the last time he had visited--not very good--and noticing the various differences.

It was the first time Riku had traveled by himself in days--Xehanort, realizing that he was unlikely to be welcomed in the city he once destroyed, had chosen to explore the uninhabited reaches of the planet, possibly to search for the mysterious Shin'an that had attacked them earlier.

It wasn't long before Riku ran into another problem, however. As he walked into a room that looked like its construction was recently completed, he spotted several people he recognized--Leon, now wearing a uniform that reminded him somewhat of military gear, was looking over something on the opposite wall, and Yuffie and Aerith were busy doing something with a nearby computer.

"What happened here?", Riku asked, stepping fully into the room for the first time. Immediately, all eyes were on him--at first, most of the people in the room didn't recognize him, but slowly he spotted the look of recognition in each pair of eyes.

"Riku!", Yuffie shouted, running up to him and hugging him. He groaned--Yuffie always was a bit _too_ enthusiastic about... well, just about everything, as far as he could remember. Once the little ninja had managed to let go, Riku went about introducing (or re-introducing) himself to everyone else in the room, and attempting to explain the recent situation without mentioning Xehanort or Darkness.

"I've been traveling around the worlds," he said, "And there's these... _things._ Shin'an, they're called."

"Shin'an?", Leon said, looking up slightly, "I've heard that name before."

"You... you have?"

"Yes," the older man answered, "We had a group of visitors not long ago who said they were trying to get rid of them. Are you with them?"

Riku shrugged. He honestly had no idea if he was "with them" or not--he didn't even know who they _were._ Xehanort had mentioned before that it seemed like someone else was fighting the Shin'an, and Riku immediately thought of Sora.

_No,_ he thought, _It can't be Sora... he would've tried to contact me by now. So it must be somebody else..._

"So... these other visitors," Riku said, looking over to Leon, "Who were they? Was it... anyone I know?"

"I'm not sure if you've ever met them," Leon answered, walking over to one of the computers, "But there's no need to describe them to you."

"Why's that?"

"We've got pictures of 'em," Yuffie said, looking first at Riku and then at the computer screen, which was completely filled with a bright blue color except for a few lines of white text here and there. "Well, as soon as we fix this thing, anyway..."

"What happened?", Riku asked, taking a few steps toward the computer. It obviously wasn't working--the nearly-blank blue screen was a sure sign of that--but it didn't look like it had been damaged in any way. Not from the outside, at least...

"It looks like vandalism," Aerith said, speaking up for the first time and walking over to a suspiciously-empty portion of the wall. "See, here's some that hasn't been cleaned off yet."

Riku looked over at the empty wall, noticing that there was something written there in large but very messy letters, apparently in some kind of paint. He took a few steps in that direction, trying to make out the words.

"'He was not the first?'", Riku said, reading the words to the best of his ability. "What kind of graffiti is that? What's it even _mean?_"

"Nobody knows," Aerith said, walking back over to the computers again, "At least, not yet. Leon thinks we might be able to find some clues if we fix the computer system."

"What happened to that?", Riku asked, taking another look and seeing that the infamous blue screen was still there. "Did they mess around with the computers, too?"

"It's starting to look that way," Leon said, barely looking up from the computer screen, "This isn't just a minor glitch, whatever the cause is."

"And the computer isn't all they messed with," Yuffie said, walking away from the screens and toward Riku again, "You noticed how empty that wall looks, right?"

"Yeah. What about it?"

"They stole the portrait of Xehanort that used to be there," Yuffie said, pointing up at a series of nails that once held the massive painting in place. "This room was going to be a museum... but now we're running out of stuff to show off."

"A museum of... Xehanort?"

"No, silly! Why in the world would we want something like _that?_", Yuffie answered, almost yelling at first. Riku mentally hit himself a few times, remembering that none of Radiant Garden's residents knew the full story of Xehanort. He would have to let them know, someday, once Gil-Neithev was gone--but blurting it out now certainly wasn't going to help anything, so he just kept quiet and listened.

"It was going to be a museum devoted to Ansem the Wise," Aerith said, looking around the room and pointing out the various statues and paintings, "And that meant we needed to have exhibits for each of his researchers, too."

"Then some kid had to come in here and screw it all up," Cid said, walking in through another door. He was carrying some cleaning supplies, probably intended for the strange graffiti on the wall. Cid was obviously the oldest of the group by far--his hair was beginning to gray a bit on the edges, and his face was developing a few small wrinkles here and there from the usual combination of stress and age.

"I seriously doubt that a _kid_ did this," Leon said, looking up at Cid from his computer, "The computer's completely fried. Whoever did this knew the system like the back of their hand."

* * *

While Kairi slept, Naminé was free to wander the worlds.

Likewise, while Kairi was awake, Naminé fell into a deep sleep.

And dreamed. As she had done in the years long before, when under the care of Organization XIII, Naminé dreamed. First, it was a simple but horrible dream--she drifted in an endless field of light, nearly blind and unable to move. And then, slowly, the dream changed entirely.

Gone was the overwhelming, blinding Light that filled Gil-Neithev's being. It was replaced by a dim but warm light, almost reddish-orange in color and far less painful to the eyes than the piercing white light from before. Drifting in the sunset-like light around her were two other beings, shapeless at first but slowly becoming solid and clearly-defined.

One of the two was Kairi, the girl who was essentially Naminé's other half. While Naminé was Kairi's body and soul given their own shape and identity, Kairi was the heart, somehow retaining its original form despite being separated from the other parts of its existence. At first, she appeared as her present self--a young woman, in her mid-twenties in age, with extremely long red hair and a white dress. And then, slowly, she regressed in age nearly ten years back, to the age she had been when she and Naminé had re-combined with each other.

Kairi's image waved, but Naminé felt unable to wave back. Instead, she turned toward the other figure that drifted in the strange light of her dreams--a bizarre whitish creature like none she had ever seen, almost snake-like in shape but smooth and scaleless, with two small arms growing out from its upper body, just a few feet away from its head. The head somewhat resembled a snake's, but with features from other reptiles mixed in here and there. The eyes were shaped more like those of a cat, but with snake-like, slit-shaped pupils. Its tongue was not forked like a snake's at all, but instead resembled a dog's. Its teeth were strange, appearing in various sizes and shapes, with a few resembling a snake's fangs but the rest seeming to come from a variety of other creatures.

The creature waved to Naminé as well, and then its face curled into what looked like a smile.

And then it spoke. Its voice was deep, but not echoing and warped like the voice of Gil-Neithev--it sounded more natural somehow, and almost _friendly,_ even.

"Thank you, Naminé," the creature said, "You hold within you the last part of me that has not become twisted by my obsession... my true memories, you could say. Memories of the Gil-Neithev that once was... before all this mindless destruction."

"Gil-Neithev... but..."

"Do not ask questions... the Gil-Neithev that exists outside cannot know that we have met, or that any shred of what he once was still exists."

"But I need to know," Naminé asked, floating closer to the creature that claimed to be the Gil-Neithev of the distant past, "The reason why I was never exactly like the other Nobodies... was it you?"

"Yes," the creature said, flickering slightly and smiling once again. Naminé looked around, and saw that Kairi's image was beginning to flicker as well. The warm, reddish-orange light was fading, being drowned out by the blinding white light from before.

The two images of a younger Kairi and the true Gil-Neithev both vanished, and Naminé's dreams returned once again to a blank white field.


	83. Chapter 78: Clouds

**Author's Note:** Make sure to read Chapter 77 also--the site's new-chapter alerts and such have been acting up lately, so you might not have seen that one yet.

* * *

**Chapter 78**

Xehanort walked through a field of tall, cyan-colored grass, just beyond the mountains of blue rock that surrounded Radiant Garden. This was the first time he had explored Radiant Garden's world since it had been restored--and in fact, the only time he had really had a chance to explore the wilderness of that world in his entire life.

It had become more and more obvious that there were no more Shin'an on this world--that, thanks to whoever it was had been there before, all of those that were infesting the city before had been exterminated. All but one, anyway--that mysterious Shin'an that had attacked him before, on the cliffs above the city.

Xehanort came to a waterfall, and sat down on a large, flat rock next to it to rest for a while. He wasn't tired from walking--in fact, he wasn't sure if he was even _able_ to get tired anymore from such simple things, thanks to the fact that he was a Heartless. Instead, he sat down so that he could think about things--the strange Shin'an from before most of all.

"That Shin'an retained its intelligence," he whispered to himself, "Like I did upon becoming a Heartless, all those years ago. And yet... this Shin'an, unlike myself, failed to retain its original form."

He looked up at the horizon, halfway expecting to see the glowing aura that surrounded the Shin'an flying at him again, but there was nothing but a relatively-normal sunset. There were some clouds gathering overhead, like a minor rainstorm was about to begin, and it was starting to get slightly darker. For a second, he wondered what Riku was up to--he had said that he wanted to look around the city, to see how it had changed since his last visit, but was there really that much to see?

_No,_ Xehanort thought, _I shouldn't expect him to tire of the city so quickly. Radiant Garden is like a new place to him, one without any bad memories left behind from the past..._

So he turned his thoughts back to the Shin'an from before, and to all Shin'an and Heartless in general. He had known for a long time what caused a Heartless to retain its intelligence even in an incomplete state, and it seemed that the Shin'an must work the same way, at least in that case. Transforming willingly--casting off your body and soul to become a being of heart alone--was the only way.

The cause of that Shin'an's distorted form, however, was not quite as well known. Xehanort had not seen many Heartless that retained their intelligence but not their original form--he, himself, managed to retain both, and it seemed that Sora had as well. But then he thought harder, and remembered something from the time when Sora became a Heartless. He _hadn't_ kept his form at all--he had regressed to a simple Shadow, the most basic of all Heartless. And yet, his intelligence and emotions--and the urges to follow his friends that came with them--had remained.

But when he and Sora had fought, on that strange world composed of all those that the Heartless had already devoured, the boy was in his original form again, though perhaps with slightly darker hair than before. He had been in the form of a Shadow before--how had he returned to his own form? It was not possible for a Heartless to change from one form to another on its own--that was something Xehanort knew very well from his extensive study of the creatures. So some outside force had to be responsible.

And why, if he had retained intelligence, did he not keep his original form from the very beginning?

It was then that Xehanort realized. What the Shin'an had said--that his mission was to destroy Darkness, both that within hearts and that which made up the worlds--finally made sense. The Shin'an had not retained its original form because its heart still contained small amounts of Darkness at the time of the transformation--just as Sora had reverted to a Shadow because his heart was almost entirely composed of Light, rather than the Darkness that powers all Heartless.

"And whoever that Shin'an was before," Xehanort said to himself, "He must have blamed the Darkness for his transformation... and that is why he chooses to follow Gil-Neithev."

* * *

"Well, it looks like I've managed to unlock the computer," Leon said, looking up after nearly an hour of messing with the computer in front of him. Everyone walked over and gathered around at the computer screen, staring over Leon's shoulders to see what was going on.

The computer beeped a few times at it rebooted, and there was a slight whirring sound as a fan inside of it, probably intended to keep it from overheating, began to run again. The screen flashed white for a second, then several loading screens passed and finally, the computer that once belonged to Ansem and his research team was operational once again.

"Hmm," Leon mumbled to himself, looking over the computer to see if there was any more damage, "It looks like they didn't bother to delete any of the data--they must have figured that we'd never manage to get it running again."

"What's that picture in the background?", Yuffie said, pointing to an unfamiliar design that had apparently been set as the computer's "wallpaper" by whoever was responsible. It looked like a sillhouette of a volcano erupting, with a small circle in the middle of the explosion and various lines flowing outward from it. The entire picture was surrounded by another circle, giving it the appearance of a badge or patch of some sort.

"Hmm... doesn't look familiar ta me," Cid said, leaning over past Yuffie to take a closer look at the screen.

"Seems like a tag of some sort," Riku said, "Like whoever did this left it as a sign that _they_ were the one who did it, not somebody else."

"That sounds about right," Leon said, searching the computer to see if there was anything else that wasn't there before, "But I don't remember anyone here ever using a volcano as their symbol."

"Probably somebody we don't know about, then," Cid said, "Either that or they pulled it outta their ass just for this."

They probably would have kept looking through the computer's files for any further information, but before they had a chance they were interrupted by an explosion from somewhere up above them. There was a sound resembling thunder for a second, and everyone looked out the window to see if lightning had struck the building.

"What in the... the storm's not even here yet?", Riku said, noticing that the dark clouds of an incoming thunderstorm were still off on the horizon.

"And that means _that_ wasn't a lightning strike," Leon said, getting up from his seat in front of the computer and heading for the door. Riku and Yuffie followed him, while Cid and Aerith--neither having much combat skill--stayed behind in the safety of the building to look through the computer's files some more.

* * *

Xehanort looked up as the sound of an explosion reached his ears, and saw hundreds of glowing doors opening up in the sky over Radiant Garden. Shin'an were pouring out of them, falling down onto the city and attacking, and high above the city a larger and more powerful Shin'an was pelting the governmental building with bolts of electricity.

He summoned his double-bladed Soul Eater in a burst of Darkness and began to float upward to get a better view of what was going on, but before he had a chance to fly toward the city, he was suddenly struck from behind.

Xehanort slammed into the ground, breaking his fall with one blade of the Soul Eater, and was hit once more before he had a chance to get up. He pulled his weapon up out of the ground and spun around to face his attacker. It was the same Shin'an that had attacked him before, but the damage to his wings and tentacles had disappeared and he seemed to have recovered fully from the previous battle.

"You again," Xehanort said, raising his weapon in defense in case another attack was coming, "I should have known that Gil-Neithev wouldn't leave such a powerful Shin'an out of an attack like this."

"I've told you before," the Shin'an said, "I'm not acting on Gil-Neithev's orders... I just want you and your Darkness gone."

"What a fool," Xehanort said, "Don't you realize that the small amount of Darkness that remains in you is the only thing that keeps Gil-Neithev from having absolute control? That is, _if_ you really are acting on your own will."

The Shin'an only growled and swung his massive energy-blade down toward Xehanort. The dark-skinned man easily blocked the attack, then rushed forward and slammed one fist into the Shin'an's stomach, sending the creature flying backwards with a trail of Darkness streaming behind him. He got back up, clutching his stomach, then was on the attack again, firing beams of Light from the tentacles on his head. Xehanort held his arms in front of his face and a swirling barrier of Darkness formed around him, absorbing the beams as if they were nothing.

"Tell me," Xehanort said, spinning the two blades of his Soul Eater in front of him in preparation for another attack, "Before you became one of the Shin'an... who were you?"

"Why should I tell _you?_"

The Shin'an rushed forward again, swinging his energy-blade at Xehanort over and over in rapid succession. Xehanort dodged out of the way of each of the heavy blows, then countered with a spinning slash of his own, causing glowing slime to spray from a fresh wound on the Shin'an's left arm.

"Because," Xehanort said, charging up an orb of Darkness in one hand, "There may be a way to return you to your original form."

"Impossible," the Shin'an said, firing an orb of Light from his right hand that collided with Xehanort's orb of Darkness and cancelled both out, "The only way I can return to my original form is by destroying the Darkness forever."

"So is that what Gil-Neithev tells you?", Xehanort said, firing several small blasts of Darkness toward the Shin'an and causing him to roll out of the way to avoid them. "That if you follow through with Gil-Neithev's plans, you will become you again?"

"No!", the Shin'an yelled, charging at Xehanort with his sword held forward, "I told you before... Gil-Neithev has no control over me!"

Xehanort teleported out of the way of the charging attack, causing the Shin'an's blade to become embedded in a rock wall near the waterfall. The Shin'an pulled his weapon out of the rock just in time to turn around and be hit in the face by another blast of Darkness which sent him slamming backward into the wall.

"You're wrong," Xehanort said, "You may not realize it, but Gil-Neithev's influence has already taken hold of you. The person you once were is struggling to hang on now, but if you keep trying to eliminate Darkness... he will cease to exist, and be replaced with yet another mindless slave of Gil-Neithev."

The Shin'an, struggling to stand at first as wisps of Darkness still hung close to him after Xehanort's attack, slowly got back up. But instead of attacking again, he simply stood and looked in Xehanort's direction.

"Maybe you're right," he said, dematerializing the blade of energy that he had held throughout the battle, "Maybe I am just... bringing myself down even further."

"Tell me who you were before," Xehanort said, lowering his weapon a little.

The Shin'an just shrugged, turned around, and began to walk away through the light blue grass. Just as he was about to disappear over a nearby hill, he turned around once again and looked back at Xehanort.

"My name," he said, looking down from the hill at the dark-skinned man, "Was Cloud."


	84. Chapter 79: The Invasion

**Chapter 79**

Shin'an fell from the sky as Riku, Leon, and Yuffie ran out of the building's front door, drawing their weapons as they went. Yuffie seemed to pull a gigantic throwing-star out of nowhere, while Leon reached back and slipped his Gunblade out of a sheath attached to his belt. Riku held out one hand, and the Way to the Dawn Keyblade materialized in a rush of blue-purple energy.

"I'll guard the entrances," Leon said, standing in front of the door and looking around, "You two... keep them from causing too much damage to the city."

Riku and Yuffie both nodded, then ran down toward the center of the city. Yuffie jumped from one roof to the next, running in between them and occasionally throwing her shuriken upward to attack a Shin'an that was about to fall into her path, while Riku simply floated off the ground using the power of Darkness and flew forward as fast as he could, Keyblade held out in front of him to stop any Shin'an from getting too close.

Eventually, they arrived at the center-point of Radiant Garden, where most of the Shin'an were gathering. Yuffie leapt down from the top of a tall building and slammed down feet-first onto a cricket-like Shin'an, sending bits and pieces of the creature flying everywhere before it dissolved away. Riku slashed away at the Shin'an as they approached him, usually managing to destroy them with a single attack each. When they began to corner him, he unleashed a circular blast of Darkness around himself, acting as both a shield and an attack and sending the glowing insects flying off in all directions as they mindlessly rushed into it to try and get to him.

* * *

Meanwhile, Leon hacked away at the large, centipede-like Shin'an that were attempting to climb the walls of the government building, splitting them in half when he hit the right spot and leaving an oozing gash behind when he didn't. There was the sound of another explosion above him, and Leon had to dive out of the way to avoid a shower of bricks from a destroyed portion of the building.

Floating high above the building, almost as if hiding within the thunderclouds, was a larger and more humanoid-shaped Shin'an. It was shaped roughly like a woman, but with six glowing wings--four positioned for flight, and the smallest two wrapped around its lower body, almost like a dress of some sort. Occasionally, he would catch a glimpse of the Shin'an coming closer, firing a bolt of electricity downward, and then quickly floating back up into the safety of the clouds.

Another centipede-like Shin'an came up over a nearby hill, and Leon slammed his Gunblade down onto its head and split the front half of the creature cleanly in half. There was another explosion from above, and then another--they were getting more frequent now.

_I've got to get to the one up there, somehow,_ Leon thought as he swiped away the weaker Shin'an that were headed for the building, _But if I leave the door unguarded..._

Just then, Cid came walking out of the government building, wearing his full Gummi Ship pilot gear.

"Need some help out here?", he asked, pointing back toward the garage nearby where he kept the Gummi Ships that he had built. Leon just stood and stared at him for a second, then turned around and slashed another Shin'an before it had a chance to get too close. He then turned back around, and finally answered.

"Wait--you're going to fight?", Leon asked, "No. Leave that to us."

Cid, of course, didn't listen--he walked past Leon, and toward the Gummi Ship garage that held all the ships he had built since Radiant Garden had been restored. A smaller door on the side of the garage swung open, then slammed shut, and the sounds of a Gummi Ship starting up could be heard from inside. A giant door opened up on the roof of the building, and then out came Cid's favorite Gummi Ship--built to look almost as if it were made of slightly-rusty old metal more than jelly-like blocks from space.

"You handle the big one!", Cid said from the ship's open window, "I'll keep the little bastards on the ground from gettin' too far."

Leon smiled slightly--a rare sight indeed!--at Cid's description of the Shin'an, then nodded and waved once before jumping onto the roof of a nearby building and preparing for the climb upward, toward the apparent leader of the invasion.

* * *

Riku and Yuffie hacked away at the Shin'an, but more and more kept coming--and worse, stronger ones were now attacking. Though the initial waves were mostly made up of the weak, cricket-like variety of Shin'an, several new types were appearing now: pale reddish-colored creatures that stood on two legs and were covered with armor plating, large centipede-like Shin'an, and a burrowing type that resembled slightly-spiky slugs with a mass of tentacles where their faces were supposed to be.

One of the red, armored Shin'an threw a punch at Yuffie which connected with her stomach, sending her flying backward into the ground. Riku raised his free hand and fired a ball of Darkness at the creature, but it wasn't quite enough to destroy it--its armor was damaged and it fell forward slightly, only to get up again and come charging back toward Riku.

Riku ducked to avoid another punch, and his hat was knocked off of his head and sent falling into a sewer grate. He muttered a few quick curses under his breath, then took a swing at the Shin'an with his Keyblade, severing the arm that was still left open from the last punch. The Shin'an shrieked and stumbled backwards slightly, but it wasn't giving up yet--it made one last attempt to attack, jumping toward Riku and trying to slam its fist down into his face.

Instead, it ended up slamming its torso down onto the Way to the Dawn's blade, killing it almost instantly. The Shin'an exploded in a spray of whitish dust which fluttered to the ground for a second before vanishing entirely.

Meanwhile, Yuffie had been disarmed--several of the large, reddish-colored Shin'an had cornered her in an alleyway between two buildings, and one of them had her shuriken embedded into the armor-plate on its shoulder. She tried to fight the creatures off with her bare hands, but as far as brute strength went, the group of Shin'an had the advantage. Whenever she would strike out at one of them and push that one back a bit, the other two would immediately attack, sending her further and further back into the alley.

"Hey! Riku!", she yelled as she kicked one of the creatures in the face, sending it stumbling back a few feet, "A little help over here would be nice!"

Riku immediately turned his head in the direction of Yuffie's voice, seeing the three large Shin'an closing in on her. He started to run in that direction, then jumped high into the air above them, flipping around several times as he fell. He landed Keyblade-first, jamming the weapon into the exposed vein-like structure on the back of one Shin'an's neck and causing it to fall over dead almost immediately.

He didn't stop there, however--using the force of the impact with the first Shin'an, he pushed himself upward once again and fell back down ontop of the second Shin'an, jabbing it in the back once and then jumping up again to come back down for another strike. The second Shin'an fell over dead, then dissolved away into white dust, filling the ground in the alley with it.

The third of the armored Shin'an--the one with Yuffie's shuriken stuck in its shoulder--stepped aside just before Riku came back down for the final attack, but instead of letting himself hit the ground, he pulled his Keyblade up at the last second and slashed upward across the Shin'an's body, sending it falling backwards with glowing slime spraying all over. It started to get up again, but before it had the chance, Riku fired a blast of Darkness directly into its wound, causing it to scream and then disintegrate away almost immediately.

* * *

Leon climbed higher and higher toward the tallest point on the building. The glow that surrounded the Shin'an above him was clearly visible, even through the clouds, from this height--just a few more feet up and he could probably reach it. Down below were the sounds of Cid's Gummi Ship flying in circles around the building, raining down lasers and occasionally a bomb or two on any Shin'an that came too close.

The thing descended from the clouds once again as Leon pulled himself up over to the highest roof of the building, which had already taken a good bit of damage from the Shin'an's lightning attacks. It stopped in midair as it saw him approach, then aimed its hand toward him instead of the building.

"Firaga!", Leon yelled, bringing his right hand up toward the creature and trying to focus enough energy for that level of magic in the short amount of time that he had. The result was better than he expected--a massive ball of flames erupted forward, hitting the Shin'an's lightning in midair and creating an explosion of fire and electricity.

Before the smoke had even cleared from the explosion, Leon had jumped upward toward the Shin'an and slashed at it with his Gunblade. The thing dodged the first blow, but the second managed to cut a chunk out of one of its wings, knocking it off balance slightly and causing it to fall downward toward the roof.

Which, conveniently, was where gravity was directing Leon. As the Shin'an fell, Leon slashed at it several more times in midair. It tried to counterattack, but its reach wasn't nearly as long as Leon's, thanks to the Gunblade's size. Several seconds later, the two of them slammed down onto the crumbling roof of the government building, causing even more bricks to fall through.

The Shin'an slashed at Leon with the large, mantis-like claws attached to its arms, but every time he was able to either avoid the attacks or parry them with his Gunblade. A burst of electricity flew forward from one of the tentacles on the Shin'an's head, causing Leon to clench his teeth to keep from yelling out in pain.

_The last thing Riku and Yuffie need now is to worry about me,_ he thought, struggling against the electricity that was slowly surrounding him. It was nearly impossible to move--almost as if a net of electricity had tightened around him, holding him in place.

And then, a strange, echoing voice spoke in Leon's head.

_"Ah, Squall Leonhart... so you too have chosen to fight against the Light you once followed,"_ the voice said, seeming to come from the Shin'an but at the same time feeling like it was from something much further away, and much more powerful.

_"So, will you continue fighting until you die?"_, the voice continued, _"Or will you be like your old friend, the one you called 'Cloud,' and choose to live?"_

"Cloud... You... you know him!?", Leon said, barely able to talk as the binding electricity gripped onto his neck and chest even tighter, "What do you mean... 'choose to live?'"

_"Exactly as it sounds... Cloud chose to become one of the Shin'an and live, rather than oppose them and die."_

"No," Leon said, "He wouldn't just... throw everything away like that!"

_"He wouldn't throw everything away like that... and yet he did,"_ the voice said, almost as if mocking him, _"Cloud can be happy now, Leon... he has finally rid himself of the Darkness that plagued him."_

"No... that's not it..."

_"But it is. You should know as well as anyone of Cloud's desire to free himself from the Darkness."_

"Not Darkness... it was Sephiroth," Leon said, "They'd been fighting so long, I don't think either of them... they couldn't even remember why they started fighting in the first place..."

_"Can't you see? The thing that made them enemies was the Darkness... Sephiroth chose to follow the dark path, and Cloud did not."_

Leon's response was little more than gasping for breath as the net of electricity crushed in even more, forcing the air out of his lungs.

* * *

Riku glanced up after destroying another group of Shin'an, and saw that the Shin'an that had been high above the buildings of the city was now standing on the roof of one, and electricity was sparking up all around something in front of it. And then, he recognized the shape inside the electricity--it was Leon.

"Yuffie," he said, turning back toward the ninja as she destroyed another Shin'an of her own, "It looks like Leon's in trouble up there. We've got to help."

"He's... not moving..."

"And that means we'll need to get up there fast," Riku said, walking toward Yuffie. He then held out one hand toward her, causing Yuffie to give him an odd look.

"What're you doing?"

"Well, it's hard to explain, but... remember those clothes Sora had, ten years ago, that let him combine his power with Donald and Goofy's?"

"I... think so," Yuffie said, pausing for a second to try and remember, "But what does that have to do with _us?_"

"Well," Riku said, smirking slightly and pointing to his outstretched hand, "Grab on and you'll find out."

After a few seconds, Yuffie slowly reached out her hand toward Riku's. Well, it was "slowly" for Yuffie, anyway--which meant that Riku actually saw her hand moving, and not just a blur. As their two hands connected, an aura of greenish energy flared up around them both, and the symbols of Darkness and Light on Riku's clothes began to glow with a strange, silvery light. A swirling, pale-green band of energy appeared around the two of them and began to spin rapidly until neither Riku or Yuffie could be seen. All the Shin'an nearby shrieked and backed away as a blast of neon-green light flooded the surrounding area.

And when the light cleared, Yuffie had disappeared and green flickers of energy occasionally swirled around Riku's arms and legs, moving from his fingers and toes all the way up to his torso before disappearing. Riku's clothes were now colored green, with a black band at the cuffs of his pants that was decorated with several interlocking, blurry-looking circles. The symbol of Darkness on the front of his shirt, as well as the symbol of Light on the back, had become slightly less rounded and more pointy on all sides, almost looking like Yuffie's shuriken.

Riku smiled an oddly toothy smile that resembled one of Yuffie's, then turned to look up at the roof of the building where Leon and the Shin'an were fighting.

"Well, then," Riku said, seemingly talking to himself, "Let's see how fast we can go now."

There was a blur of translucent greenish energy and a sound like a strong wind rushing by, and in an instant Riku was gone, speeding off toward the Shin'an's location so quickly that Shin'an of all types were sent spinning away, disoriented, as he passed.


	85. Chapter 80: Shin'an Madrugada

**Chapter 80**

Riku ran through the streets as fast as he could go, knocking Shin'an aside as he went without even bothering to slash at them with his Keyblade--he just ran over them, and they went spinning off into a wall or rolling down an empty alley. It didn't _feel_ like he was going much faster than normal, but it was obvious that he was--less than a minute passed, but he had already cleared the distance between the center of the city and the large building at the far end where Leon and the Shin'an were fighting.

He looked up at the scene for a second, noticing that Leon seemed to be choking as the net of electricity closed in on him. And then, he took off running once again and ran straight up the wall of the building, ending with an impossibly high jump that positioned him directly behind the Shin'an.

"Hey," Riku said, raising his Keyblade up over his head and preparing to attack, "Let go of him."

The Shin'an spun around surprisingly quickly, but it wasn't quite fast enough. Riku's Keyblade came slashing down and severed more than a few of the tentacles that covered its head, causing the net of electricity to sputter for a second before running out of power entirely and letting Leon drop to the floor, apparently unconscious.

Riku slashed at the Shin'an again, but it became surrounded in a bright light and teleported away just in time to avoid the hit. A split-second passed, and then the Shin'an suddenly appeared again, slashing at Riku with its claws and attempting to grab onto him. He dashed backwards to avoid the attack, then rushed forward again with the Way to the Dawn held out in front of him. The Shin'an began to charge another blast of electricity, but before it had a chance to fire, Riku thrust his Keyblade forward into its midsection, pushing it backwards several feet. It teleported again, this time catching Riku off guard by reappearing behind him. He turned around once again, preparing to attack, but the Shin'an hit first, grabbing Riku's arm in one of its mantis-like claws.

He struggled slightly at first, trying to free the arm, but it soon became obvious that it wasn't going to work. The Shin'an began to charge up another blast of lightning in its free arm. Riku reached out with his free hand and gripped onto the creature's other arm, then jumped as high as he could, nearly reaching the low-hanging thunderclouds. The Shin'an started to charge up once again, but before it had a chance to release its attack, Riku swung himself up, using the Shin'an's arms for support, and planted both of his feet into its chest. Riku's arm was ripped free of the Shin'an's grip, leaving a bleeding gash behind, and the Shin'an was sent crashing down into the roof of the building below. As it came close to hitting the roof, Riku dove downward with his Keyblade at the ready, catching up to the creature just before the impact and jabbing the weapon's blade into the Shin'an's arm.

The Shin'an shrieked and knocked Riku away with its other arm, but it was already too late for the arm that had been pinned down--it was torn free of its body and quickly dissolved away into glowing white dust.

Riku flipped backwards, leaving a trail of translucent greenish energy in his wake, and then held out his Keyblade in front of him. An aura of Darkness surrounded it, becoming larger and larger as time went on. The Shin'an stood back up, causing several small bricks and various other debris to fall down.

And then, Riku aimed the Keyblade directly at the Shin'an and let go. Instead of dropping to the floor, the weapon flew forward like a rocket, surrounded by the surging aura of Darkness and leaving a trail of black, Darkness-composed smoke as it went. The Shin'an started to hold up its last remaining claw to block, and the light that came with its teleportation began to surround it once again, but before either of these things could succeed, the flying Keyblade had already reached its target.

There was a massive explosion of Darkness, and the Shin'an was sent flying off of the edge of the building's roof, its wings shredded from the attack and its single remaining claw heavily damaged as well. There was a thump and a faint squeak from somewhere down below, and Riku immediately followed the Shin'an, grabbing his Keyblade out of the air as he went and jumping down off the edge of the roof. The Shin'an was lying on the ground, its ruined wings already beginning to dissolve away, when Riku landed.

Cid's Gummi Ship slowly flew around the corner of the building, and the older man peeked out of the partially-open window to take a look. Riku raised up his Keyblade, and then began to slash at the Shin'an on the ground so quickly that each individual swing only appeared as a blur of blue, red, and green energy in the air. When Riku finally stopped attacking, the Shin'an was lying on the ground in pieces, not even able to utter a dying shriek as most Shin'an did. The glow around its body dimmed, and then, slowly, it dissolved away into a pile of whitish dust.

* * *

Leon pulled himself up off of the destroyed roof, noticing that it seemed to be much more heavily damaged than it was the last time he had been conscious. He walked over to the opposite side of the roof and looked down... and a very odd sight came into his field of vision.

Riku, now with green clothes and missing the black hat that he had been wearing before, was standing in a pile of white dust, which dissapeared shortly afterward. And then, Riku flickered slightly, and a bright green light began to surround him. As the light got brighter and brighter, another shape--this one smaller and more feminine than Riku's--emerged from Riku's body. The light dimmed, and Riku was wearing his usual clothes again--though still missing the hat--and Yuffie was standing there as well.

Needless to say, Leon, who had never actually _seen_ a Drive form wearing off before, was more than a little surprised. And that, combined with the fact that he was only just barely able to stand as it was, pushed him just a bit too far over his limit. Fortunately, Cid managed to pull his Gummi Ship around just in time, and when Leon passed out and fell forward, he fell into the window and face-first into the cushion on the passenger-side seat.

"Well, damn," Cid said, pulling Leon up into a sitting position and fastening his seatbelt for him, "I know ya don't see a little girl pop out of a guy like Riku every day, but _this?_ Damn..."

* * *

"Shin'an Madrugada has been destroyed," Zenos said, walking into the room where Kairi spent most of her time staring into the orb of Light.

"Yes, I know," she said, not even bothering to turn toward the knight, "Riku has grown far beyond what I had expected... no Shin'an can defeat him now."

"So," Zenos said, looking into the orb along with Kairi, "Shall I go after him, then?"

"No... not yet. He is not alone..."

"Xehanort...?"

"Yes," Kairi answered, turning toward the knight for the first time, "It seems Xehanort has returned... or perhaps he simply never left to begin with. But, fortunately, he is not nearly as powerful now than he was then. I will deal with him myself... when he arrives here."

"So we are to make no further attempts to stop them, then?"

"That is correct," Kairi said, her voice echoing and eyes beginning to glow, "He was able to defeat me before, but times have changed... he, as a Heartless, has become weaker than he once was. And I... I now have a power that he does not know."


	86. Chapter 81: Since Then

**Chapter 81**

Vexen's ship flew through space, heading away from the world of the Pride Lands and off in a completely different direction than they were going in before. In the back of the ship, Zexion was examining Roxas to make sure that his seizure from earlier had not caused any damage, while the others all sat in the middle of the ship, occasionally looking out the windows at the sea of stars outside.

"Well, I sure haven't seen a ship like this in a long time," Mickey said, looking up toward the front of the ship, "I thought everyone was using Gummi Ships these days."

"We were using quite a few of those before," Vexen said, "But, as they were mostly used by the lesser Nobodies, they were all stored in the Castle That Never Was... which has gone missing."

"Hmm... that's weird," Otonashi said, "Riku said it was still mostly in one piece, the last time he saw it... what could've happened?"

"Nobody knows," Lexaeus said, "Zexion said that it was still there the last time _he_ looked, as well. So the disappearance must have been fairly recent."

Suddenly, there was a loud _thump_ from the back of the ship, followed by a yell that sounded a lot like Roxas.

Mickey and Lexaeus both unfastened their seatbelts immediately and ran back toward the area of the ship where Zexion and Roxas were. Roxas seemed to be fine, but Zexion was lying on the floor, not moving at all.

"What happened?", Lexaeus asked, looking first to the unconscious blue-haired man and then to Roxas.

"I don't know... he was checking to see if that seizure I had earlier had caused anything different to happen," Roxas answered, looking back down toward Zexion again, "And then... he just stopped in the middle of a sentence... and fell over."

"He's twitching," Mickey said, causing both of the others to look down toward Zexion again, "Just a little bit now... but it looks like it's speeding up."

With that, Zexion began twitching faster and much more frequently, in a way very similar to Roxas' seizure from earlier. His hair fell away from his eyes, revealing that both seemed to be forced open, staring forward and never moving. At the other end of the ship, an alarm began to go off. Vexen panicked, franticly pressing buttons on the console to try and figure out what was causing this.

"What's going on!?", Michiko yelled, trying to be heard by Vexen over the loud, repetitive sound of the alarm. The older man turned back toward her for a second, then back to a small computer screen in front of him. He pushed several more buttons, then turned to Michiko again.

"There seems to be a strange surge of energy surrounding the ship," Vexen said, "It doesn't appear to be made entirely up of Light or Darkness... though there are small readings of both..."

The ship shook for a second, and then Zexion was surrounded by a strange, multicolored glow. Before anyone had a chance to do anything else, the ship stopped shaking, and the alarm was silenced. The rainbow-colored energy seemed to "dry up" and soak into Zexion's body, and immediately the twitching stopped and his eyes slipped shut.

* * *

Riku sat in the chair next to the computer, watching as the files slowly began to load. It was obvious that the computer was from Ansem's time--it was huge compared to the newer ones, and though it was extremely powerful for its time, it was now finally beginning to fall behind a bit.

"Here it is," Leon said, pushing a few buttons and opening up one of the files, "You wanted to know who it was who fought the Shin'an here earlier?"

"Of course," Riku said, looking up at the older man for a second before turning his attention back to the screen. Leon quickly typed in a few names, then clicked the mouse once, and immediately four pictures appeared.

"King Mickey... so he's been here!", Riku said, immediately recognizing the first of the pictures, "But the other three... they look a little familiar, but I don't think I know them."

Leon clicked again, and three equally unfamiliar names popped up on the three unfamiliar pictures--Even Rimewind, Elaeus Sabato, and Ienzo Boccaccio. Riku had never heard any of them before--the last names least of all. But the pictures _did_ look oddly familiar to him...

"But you probably didn't know them by _those_ names," Leon continued, clicking another button and typing in another set of names. Immediately the three pictures were replaced by three similar ones, now wearing black Organization XIII cloaks and apparently a few years older. The names on the pictures also changed--Vexen, Lexaeus, and Zexion.

"What the... you mean, Organization XIII is still around!?"

"No," Leon answered, "Not exactly, anyway. From what Vexen and Lexaeus told us, they and Zexion are the only members of the original group that still live..."

"You forgot one," Yuffie butted in as she entered the room, "They mentioned someone named Roxas, too."

Riku spun around to face her as soon as he heard the name. _How could Roxas still be around... wasn't he..._

"Roxas!?", Riku said, almost yelling from surprise, "But he's... he was _Sora's_ Nobody... and they became one again a long time ago. How could he still be out there somewhere?"

"I'm not sure," Leon said, standing up from the computer, "But if Roxas exists apart from Sora again, then that means..."

He and Riku both realized it--and said it--at almost the same time.

"Something must have happened to Sora..."

* * *

Xehanort stood on the cliff overlooking the city, having watched the entirety of the Shin'an invasion. Riku had grown incredibly powerful, it seemed--the leader of the invasion, that Shin'an that floated high above the city, was easily more powerful than the one he had fought earlier, and yet Riku had managed to destroy it with a bit of help.

And that comparison of strength got him thinking about the Shin'an he had fought earlier--the one who had once been named Cloud. He thought he remembered hearing of someone with that name before...

He thought back to one of his many years as one of Ansem's researchers, a time years before the destruction of Radiant Garden. It was the same year that he had discovered the door to the world's heart--that door that he had mysteriously been able to pass through, even without having any way to open it. Several days afterward, he remembered walking home from work, to the house where Ansem lived when he wasn't busy with his research. As he had been an orphan, Xehanort had been taken in by Ansem--and many times, he was the sole inhabitant of that house, especially in the later years.

He was walking home one day when he encountered a group of young children, each no more than five years old. One little boy, with spiky blonde hair, was leading two brown-haired girls around to show them where "that creepy guy" lived. And then, just as they had approached the front door of his house, they spotted him walking straight toward them. Based on their reactions, _he_ was the "creepy guy" they had mentioned.

He stopped the kids before they managed to run away--well, one of them anyway. The two girls had ran the second that they had seen him, but the boy had stumbled slightly and tripped over a section of the sidewalk. He later discovered, after talking to the boy, that his name was Cloud Strife--or, as the boy himself had said, "Cloud Stwife."

Twenty-three years had passed since that day. Little Cloud wouldn't be quite so little anymore--he would have been almost thirty years of age, now, if he hadn't become a Shin'an. There were never any visible signs of aging among Heartless that hadn't retained their own forms, and he suspected that Shin'an were no different.

He looked up into the sky above him again, noticing that it was now growing dark as the last light of the sunset faded away over the horizon. The stormclouds were passing over the city and coming in his direction, and it was now raining heavily.

"Hmm," Xehanort said to himself, "This looks like a good time to find Riku... and get ready to leave."


	87. Chapter 82: Mysterious Encounter

**Author's Note:** And Mysterious Geometric Shape Man actually FIGHTS for the first time!... or not.

* * *

**Chapter 82**

Xehanort paced back and forth on the blue rock just outside of the city of Radiant Garden. Apparently, Riku was still busy with something inside. But the dark-skinned man knew that he couldn't simply walk in and find Riku himself--someone would recognize him.

No, _everyone_ would recognize him--they would remember him as the one who once ruined their world, forcing them to flee in their Gummi Ships from the swarm of Heartless he had brought under his control. Those who weren't able to reach a ship had to risk the portals of Darkness that had begun to appear as the world grew unstable--many of those who left in this way arrived on dangerous, inhospitable worlds far from home, and never returned. Even more had possibly survived but were still missing, their fates completely unknown to all.

No, Xehanort could never go back to Radiant Garden now--not so long as anyone who had been around during his period of insanity remained there. He stood and watched the city for several minutes as the rain began to soak into his clothes and the sky darkened as night fell.

"Hmm... it seems Riku is planning to stay overnight," he said to himself, bringing up an aura of Darkness over his head to keep any more rain off of his already-soaked clothes.

"If that's the case, then... it seems I will have to find somewhere to sleep as well."

* * *

Mog awakened on the blue, crystal-covered platform just outside of the new door, stretching as he stood and immediately summoning his Keyblade. All around him, he could see nothing but empty space--there were stars visible in the distance as well as some strange clouds of glowing energy closer, but it was obvious that he was far away from any inhabitable world.

"So... this, out here, is the World of Light, huh?"

There was a swirl of energy beside him, and a glowing hexagon appeared on the floor. Shortly afterward, the strange, flickering figure that had spoken to him before was standing there again, also staring out into the space around them.

"Yes... this is the far side of the World of Light," the figure said, still staring out into space, "But Gil-Neithev's sight reaches even beyond this point now. You must leave soon."

Mog stared off into space again. One of the glowing clouds of energy swirled slightly before splitting off into two smaller clouds, and somewhere off in the distance a new star seemed to blink into existence.

"That which you just saw was no star," the glowing figure said quickly, "Gil-Neithev has already sent his minions in search of you... that sparkle of light in the distance was the opening of a Door to Light."

"So I'd better get outta here," Mog said, turning to the strange man, "But... I don't have any way to get away quickly... I can't open the Dark Passage or anything."

The figure simply nodded slightly and held out one hand to his side, and a glowing circle appeared on the floor, slowly transforming to different shapes until finally it became a hexagon. The hexagon drifted up into the air slowly, followed by more and more which drifted upward several feet before disappearing.

"Step into the hexagon shape on the ground... it will lead you to someplace safer than this."

Mog looked at the strange, floating shapes in front of him and then, gripping his Keyblade tightly, took a step in. Instantly his surroundings seemed to vanish, and he began flying through a strange, glowing tunnel at incredible speeds, heading to whatever unknown destination that the mysterious figure had chosen for him...

* * *

He watched, standing still on the blue crystal platform, as the Door to Light in the distance slowly flickered and faded away. No--not only one door, but three. Gil-Neithev had sent the three ancient Warriors of Light, each one likely powerful enough to complete the mission alone, after a single Moogle.

Fortunately, said Moogle was long gone by the time they came into view. He had vanished in that portal formed of both Light and Darkness, heading off to a safer world somewhere far away. The three knights were going to be very disappointed.

Zenos, Vasilios, and Sofia slowly floated down onto the blue crystal platform, their metal boots clanking against it as they finally came to a stop. The new Keyblade-wielder they had been sent to find--the one who had unsealed one of the three doors leading into the World of Nothingness--was nowhere to be seen. Standing alone on the platform in front of them, directly in front of the door, was a strange, silvery-blue figure in the shape of a tall man.

"I suppose you're wondering who I am?"

The three knights stopped in midstep, waiting for anything else to happen, and each of them summoned their Keyblade. Sofia ran forward and thrust her Keyblade toward the figure, but the strange man simply sank down into the flickering hexagon on the floor, avoiding the attack entirely. The hexagon then shifted to another position on the floor, and in a flash of energy the man reappeared again.

"I'm afraid swiping at me with those artificial Keyblades will get you nowhere," he said, disappearing and reappearing in another position as Vasilios swung his Keyblade at him. The three knights shifted positions slightly to face him as he appeared once again in front of the door.

"Why don't _you_ fight, then?", Sofia asked, almost growling at the strange man, "Or... is avoiding our blows all you _can_ do?"

"All I am _allowed_ to do, perhaps," the man corrected her, vanishing once again as Zenos slammed his heavy Keyblade into the ground where he stood just a second before, "Beings such as I must not become so directly involved in the workings of the worlds... Gil-Neithev has made a terrible mistake by doing so."

"Gil-Neithev is working toward the purification of all worlds," Zenos said, taking a step toward the figure and raising his Keyblade over his shoulder, "By erasing all Darkness that exists, and remaking the worlds as places of pure Light... Gil-Neithev will create a paradise."

"Such fools. Blindly following your master's wishes... unaware of what lies ahead."

He disappeared again, reappearing on the other side of the door and causing all three of the knights' Keyblades to slam into the blue ground as they attempted to strike at him again, sending fragments of crystal and rock scattering. A few more seconds passed, as the three knights stared into the door into the World of Nothingness, unsure of whether or not it was safe to enter.

Before they had a chance, however, the strange man began to fade away in a flurry of geometric shapes, leaving only the empty void behind as he went.

* * *

The silvery-blue energy around Mog began to fade, and his movement through space seemed to slow down. All around him, another world began to appear--or, more accurately, a rather large vineyard that he guessed was most likely part of another world.

He came flying out of the portal and into a mass of grapevines, causing ripe grapes to fall off and bounce along the ground as he struggled to get out. Fortunately, nobody was around at the moment--so he cut the vines with his Keyblade and fell to the ground, landing on his feet.

He walked over to the large stone and iron fence surrounding the vineyard and hopped up ontop of one of one of the stone sections, carefully avoiding the spikes on top of the iron bars nearby. From this position, he could see that he had arrived somewhere on the edge of a city--there were streets that seemed to be made of cobblestones of some sort, with all kinds of decorated buildings in the distance and, even further away, something that appeared to be a canal.

Mog hopped down off of the pillar and began to walk down the street. He had no idea if there were other Moogles on this world--or what the other inhabitants' reaction to the sight of a Moogle would be--but he was sure that they probably hadn't seen many Keyblades there. So he stopped for a second and looked around for a bit, to make sure nobody could see him, and then dematerialized the weapon.

He had no idea where he was, or where he was going... but without any way of transporting himself between worlds, it was bound to be a _long_ trip.


	88. Chapter 83: Sleep

**Chapter 83**

It had been years since the last time Riku had slept in Radiant Garden, but even after all those years it was one of the few worlds where Riku really felt comfortable sleeping--now that it had been restored, anyway.

There was no more Maleficent, no more gatherings of Darkness-obsessed ruffians she had brought together from all over the universe... and most reassuring of all, no more Heartless. Or, at least, if there _were_ Heartless around, they were far fewer in numbers than before.

_But that's probably because of the Shin'an,_ he thought, remembering that Heartless were far from being the greatest threat to the worlds these days. He almost missed his younger days, when everyone had foolishly assumed that Darkness was the source of all problems in the worlds--there always seemed to be less things to worry about when you were only looking for them in one place.

Before long, Riku's thoughts began to quiet down. Thoughts of the Shin'an and Heartless left his mind, and soon afterward the memories of his past days followed. Several minutes more, and he was fast asleep.

* * *

Zexion awakened to find himself lying on the emergency bed in the back of the ship, tucked under a thin blanket like a hospital patient. What was going on? The last thing he remembered, he was examining Roxas to make sure the seizure hadn't caused any permanent damage, and then...

Nothing. After that point, he couldn't remember anything--it was as if he had passed out, for whatever reason. He laid still on his back in the bed for a few minutes, staring at the ceiling and thinking about it, before he finally realized what must have happened--he, too, had fallen victim to a mysterious seizure, just like Roxas.

As he sat up in the bed, the first thing he noticed was that Lexaeus and Mickey were standing beside him--one on either side--and apparently monitoring his condition while he was unconscious.

"Good to see you're back with us," Mickey said, hopping down from the chair he had been standing on, "We were kinda worried there for a second..."

"You remained unconscious far longer than Roxas," Lexaeus said, walking over and picking up the clipboard that Vexen had been using earlier, "Nearly an hour."

"An hour!?"

Zexion was now sitting fully upright in the bed, and the blankets that had covered him a second before were now hanging off to the side, nearly falling onto the floor. He had been unconscious for almost a full hour... and yet, it had felt like only a few seconds, or maybe a minute at the most.

"Was it really _that_ long?", Zexion asked, getting out of the bed and walking over to where Lexaeus was standing. The larger man nodded, then lowered the clipboard so Zexion could see.

"Hmm... it seems everything was normal for most of the hour," Zexion said, going over the notes on the clipboard carefully, "But then, hardly a minute before I awakened... there was another strange surge of energy in the ship."

The blue-haired man paused on that. _Another_ surge of energy? When was the first one?

His question was answered, almost immediately afterward, by Vexen, who had gotten up from his seat and headed toward the back room of the ship.

"The first energy surge occurred just as you were beginning to enter the seizure," he said, taking a few steps closer, "I am unsure if Roxas' seizure earlier caused a similar surge or not, as the ship's sensors where not active at that time."

"And... about the second surge?"

"Very similar to the first, but far smaller," the scientist answered, "And it, unlike the first, was not accompanied by a seizure. According to the notes left by Lexaeus and the King, you remained oddly still the whole time."

"Hmm... strange."

Zexion thought for a second, now standing in a very familiar position with his hand held to his chin. But no matter how many times he went over it, he couldn't figure out exactly _what_ had caused these strange seizures. None of them--himself, Vexen, Lexaeus, or even the mouse King--had noticed any signs that something had changed about either he or Roxas. Zexion certainly didn't _feel_ any different now than he had before--well, at least not any worse. Now that Roxas was confirmed unharmed and he was awake again, he was actually feeling a bit better than before.

But then, before he had the chance to think about it much more, he noticed something else entirely. If Vexen was standing in front of him, who was controlling the ship?

And Zexion panicked.

"Vexen! What are you _doing!?_ You should be piloting the ship!"

Vexen stopped, looking almost confused for a second, and then smiled, looking as if he was trying to restrain a laugh or two. Once he had managed to prevent himself from laughing, he finally explained what was going on.

"The ship is in no danger now," he explained, still smiling slightly as he spoke, "Because we are currently in orbit over a world. We'll wait until morning before we land and perform our Shin'an-exterminating duties there."

* * *

Cloud crouched on one of the tall buildings in the city that now covered most of the Destiny Islands, staring out into space and thinking.

_What if what Xehanort said was right?,_ he thought, looking up at the sky as the last orangish-purple light of the setting sun faded away, _What if the way I've been living... chasing the Light, and fearing the Darkness... was the wrong way all along?_

He stood up, stretching out the strange, insect-like wings that he, as a Shin'an now had. The wings fanned out to their full spread, then fell back into their normal positions once again as their owner went back to looking out over the city.

_But then... what about Sephiroth? If he was never really what I thought he was... then what _was _he?_

He thought back to his last meeting with the silver-haired man. They began their fight in one of the blue, crystal-like canyons just outside of Radiant Garden. Before long, they had left that world--and arrived on another, a world far away from the city that both of them had once lived. An uninhabited world, where there was no worry of accidentally hurting anyone nearby...

The fight went on for nearly an hour. It seemed like a lot longer than that. Sephiroth was easily the stronger of the two--both of them knew that. He had been lucky that Sora had fought Sephiroth first... thought the fight was more of a test of power than a fight to the death, Sora still managed to wear Sephiroth down.

If not for that bit of help, he would have been doomed. Sephiroth hadn't shown it at the time, of course--but Cloud now realized that the battle with Sora had weakened his rival just enough for the two to fight on even terms.

And when the two of them were both beginning to tire from the fight, they teleported across worlds again--but this time, they became separated. Cloud ended up on a world of elves, a world covered in forests but with incredible technology hiding within. And Sephiroth... he never did find out where Sephiroth went. The two had never seen each other once since.

_Sora... if it wasn't for you, I would have died that day..._

He took a look toward the extraordinarily tall building in the center of the city, where the royalty of Destiny Islands resided. To a normal person, or to a Nobody, the building wouldn't have appeared much different than any other, besides the difference in height. But Cloud's Shin'an eyes could see--surrounding the entire building, radiating out from it, was an aura of Light stronger than any other.

_Gil-Neithev,_ Cloud thought, staring into the glowing field around the building once again, _It has to be... a power of Light that strong could only come from the one who controls the Shin'an..._

He thought back to what Xehanort had told him. That following Gil-Neithev would not return him to his original form, but transform him into a mindless servant like the other Shin'an...

_If that's true... then maybe there's some other way..._

_Maybe... instead of helping Gil-Neithev... I should be helping those who seek to destroy him._


	89. Questions Answered and Unused Plot Stuff

**If I Had Finished "What Comes After"**

_Questions that would have been answered eventually._

**Author's Note:** Yes, this is basically to make up for the lack of any more chapters of What Comes After. Why just let all those ideas go to waste, after all? Instead, I've decided that I'll plop all of my unused ideas for the future of What Comes After into one big "kinda the final chapter" thing, and explain all the stuff that I had left unexplained throughout the story as well.

If there's anything else you want to know the answer to, or anything I forgot to mention, just review and ask me there--if it's something that wasn't already answered in the story, I'll add it into this "chapter" eventually.

* * *

**All About Riku**

As some of you probably figured out, Riku's dream in the first chapter was sent to him by Naminé. Just like the dreams Roxas and Xehanort had later. Since Naminé was combined with Kairi (who was possessed by Gil-Neithev), she had access to Gil-Neithev's memories as well as her own and Kairi's--and so, she knew about the battle between Xehanort and the knights.

Riku would have eventually used a Drive form that involved him combining with Xehanort. In this form, Xehanort's double-bladed Soul Eater would fuse with Riku's Keyblade, creating a double-bladed Way to the Dawn--which would be a ridiculously powerful weapon, needless to say. This is the form that Riku and Xehanort would have used in the final battle with Gil-Neithev.

There's a bit more left to say about Riku and what would have eventually happened to him in the story, but I'll leave that for the Gil-Neithev section.

* * *

**All About Roxas... and Sora**

Roxas originally didn't remember his "first life" (before combining with Sora) because he had remained fused with Sora for too long. Combining an intelligent Heartless (or Shin'an) with an intelligent Nobody means you have two intelligent beings in the same body, which never works for very long. Eventually whichever being is dominant takes over, and the other is wiped out and reverted to just another part of the dominant being. Essentially, Roxas died. His previous memories still existed, however--but they were spread out between Roxas and Sora, so neither was able to remember them. This is why Naminé, drawing on some of Gil-Neithev's power to boost her own memory-altering abilities, was slowly able to reconstruct them.

During the scenes leading up to the final battle, Riku and Sora would finally meet. As Sora was completely controlled by Gil-Neithev at this point, Sora doesn't even recognize Riku--in fact, he instead claims that the person in front of him is not Riku at all, but just another being of Darkness doomed to be destroyed by Gil-Neithev. Sora (along with Donald and Goofy, in their armor) would fight Riku, at about the same time that the Org.XIII group would fight the knights and Xehanort would fight Yen Sid. Eventually, Donald and Goofy would be convinced that Gil-Neithev's side isn't the right one, and they would help Riku to finally defeat Sora. Sora wouldn't die at the end, though he would be heavily damaged and barely able to stay conscious (both from injuries and due to Gil-Neithev messing with his mind too often in the years before.)

Roxas was eventually going to willingly combine with Sora once again, in order to save his life after the final battle. Gil-Neithev's mind control would have resulted in a brain-fried Sora that couldn't live on without Gil-Neithev's involvement; Roxas fusing with him again would leave Sora (the heart) dormant within Roxas (the body/soul) and would allow Sora to recover over time.

Of course, once Sora was in a stable condition, they probably would have separated again in order to prevent either of them from being completely absorbed into the other.

* * *

**All About Zenos, Vasilios, and Sofia**

The secret to the knights' ability to come back to life is that their armor has to be mostly intact for it to work--if each major part of their armor (chest, stomach, both legs, both arms, and helmet) has been damaged, they will die and won't be able to come back. This is why they react so badly when even a small part of their armor has a hole punched in it.

Their Keyblades actually had names, though there wasn't any chance to actually reveal them within the story. Zenos' Keyblade is called Zircon, Sofia's is Tantalum, and Vasilios' is Pyrite. They're named after different materials that are essentially used as "fake diamond," "fake silver," and "fake gold," respectively.

All three of the knights would have died in the events leading up to the final battle. Zenos would have been the first to go. He would fight Lexaeus--and, in the process of the fight, Lexaeus reveals that he has discovered the knights' secret and knows how to kill them permanently. Lexaeus continues fighting, but the whole time he is preparing to unleash an attack that will kill Zenos at the cost of his own life. After knocking Zenos down, he finally uses the attack he had prepared--Lexaeus slowly begins to turn to stone starting at his feet, and as more and more of his body becomes rock, shards of rock begin to fly around Zenos in a sphere, preventing him from moving. Once Lexaeus' head is the only part of him left intact, he yells and the shards all dive inward, tearing the knight's armor apart and killing him instantly. Lexaeus then becomes completely petrified.

After the final battle is over, Vexen and Zexion take the "statue" of Lexaeus--which has miraculously remained in one piece despite the world nearly being torn apart--with them when they return home to Castle Oblivion.

I hadn't decided how Sofia and Vasilios would finally die, but since the three knights (along with many regular guards) would have been fighting the Organization's group (consisting of Vexen, Lexaeus, Zexion, Otonashi, Michiko, Mickey, and Mog at that point) it's most likely that they would each be killed by someone in that group.

* * *

**Yen Sid in the Final Battle**

Yen Sid's fate was not yet decided at the time when I stopped writing What Comes After, but there was a very good chance that he would eventually end up fighting Xehanort, while Riku fought Sora and the Org.XIII group fought the knights. Though he could have lived, there's a good chance that Yen Sid wouldn't if he tried to fight someone as powerful as Xehanort by himself!

* * *

**All About the Underground**

These guys would probably make one last appearance before the end--when Riku and Xehanort first arrive on Destiny Islands' world, they would find Alberto about to be executed. Though they would manage to stop the execution halfway through, it would already be too late for Alberto to make it--and, after talking to Alberto for a little bit before he finally dies, they'd decide to immediately attack Gil-Neithev's stronghold, before anyone else ends up dead.

Most of the Underground would probably end up executed near the end, just as Alberto did--at least, the majority of the random people who weren't ever given names would, as well as Noob and Dan (who were captured before Alberto was, so they were already dead at that point.)

Alekia, Pwibby, the Blue Turtle, and Sphere would live on, and would probably end up becoming involved in the government of Destiny Islands once the entire Gil-Neithev mess was over. All of the survivors would probably have more scars on them than the last time they were seen, however--Alekia would be missing her other eye (with a second robotic one in its place), and the Blue Turtle would now have a massive scar running through his famous turtle tattoo, as if it had been split in half.

Obviously, none of the survivors would be of much help in the final battle--they can take out plain old guards fairly easily, but anything stronger than a basic Shin'an would be too much for any of them, even with their various minor Darkness powers.

* * *

**All About Mysterious Geometric Shape Man**

Mysterious Geometric Shape Man is Ansem, aka DiZ. When he was caught in the explosion from trying to contain Kingdom Hearts inside of his machine, the massive amount of energy caused his heart and body to fuse into a single part. This transformed him into the same type of creature as Gil-Neithev, Creiv-Rilett, and Sen-Knaida. Due to the fact that Ansem himself had both Light and Darkness, and the explosion contained massive amounts of both, he became a being of Twilight, making him sort of like a replacement for Sen-Knaida.

Fortunately, being in this form enabled him to get over himself a little and stop his silly little "revenge" thing, as well as realizing that Light and Darkness are neither good or evil. So basically, Ansem went from a slightly misguided good guy, to a bad guy, to a slightly misguided good guy again right before his apparent death... and then, finally, to a _real_ good guy. He's come a long way.

* * *

**The Reason for Roxas and Zexion's Seizures**

The mysterious seizures that came upon Roxas and Zexion were caused by new hearts entering their bodies. In case you don't remember, they passed through the place where all hearts originate from on their way to unseal the Door, and they stayed there for a decent amount of time due to having to fight Chernabog. As the two of them are Nobodies, they had no hearts at the time they visited that area. Normally, a Nobody never "grows back" their heart--it doesn't work that way. And since they were born with hearts, the process that causes hearts to enter bodies doesn't pick them up as being someone in need of a new heart. That is, UNLESS they actually go to the place where hearts come from... The new hearts locked on to them while they were there, and then later, they finally caught up with them.

The seizures themselves were caused for two reasons--first of all, hearts usually enter the body about a week before birth, when the person they belong to is not even an intelligent being yet. A new heart entering an _adult_ works a little bit differently. And second of all, the body and soul have to adjust to having a normal emotional process again after such a long period of _not_ having it. The easiest way to do this without causing any problems is to knock the body unconscious as the heart begins to enter, so that was exactly what happened.

As for Roxas' newfound completeness and how he's still able to fuse with Sora to save him--basically, Sora is too heavily damaged (both from his battle with Riku and from constant memory-wiping and mind-controlling by Gil-Neithev) to live. By fusing with Sora, Roxas is essentially sacrificing his new heart to save him--Sora's heart was too damaged to survive on its own, but if it is contained in Roxas' body, it would be able to use Roxas' new heart to repair itself, eventually fusing with it completely once it was done.

Of course, having both Sora and Roxas in the same body for too long would cause Sora to be completely absorbed into Roxas and die--so, once Sora was fully recovered, he would split apart from Roxas once again, causing Roxas to become a Nobody (and Sora to be a Shin'an, though he'd retain his normal form just like the last time.)

* * *

**Name Origins**

The three Keyblades used by the knights--Zircon, Tantalum, and Pyrite--are all named after materials that are used as replacements for, or are sometimes mistaken for, more valuable ones. Zircon (zirconia) is a clear crystal that looks like a diamond. Tantalum is used in place of silver. And pyrite, as you probably know, is also known as "fool's gold."

Michiko's Keyblade is known as "New Heart," though the name never comes up in the story. As it feeds off of her emotions and changes itself to fit them, it works something like an actual heart, which she (as a Nobody) is currently lacking.

Michiko means "Child of the Pathway" in Japanese. Well, it can mean a whole bunch of other things as well, but that's the meaning I had intended. It's also something of a title for her, since she's part of the Twilight World's royal family and the Twilight World's major symbol is that huge four-way path on the way to Castle Oblivion, where her ancestors once lived.

Zenos, Vasilios, and Sofia are named in Greek, after features that are the exact opposite of what they are. Sofia means "wisdom"--and yet she's the first to blurt out all the crap about Nobodies "not existing" and such. Vasilios means "royal," but he was actually too far removed from the Twilight World's royal family to get the benefits of being royalty (which is part of the reason why he was able to be convinced into joining Gil-Neithev.) And Zenos means "merciful"... but instead he's always the guy who beats people within an inch of their life rather than just going ahead and killing them.

The Shin'an created from the Princesses of Heart are all given names that resemble the names the princesses had, but in another language. Cinderella's was Cendrillon, which is Cinderella in French. Snow White's was Lumikki, which is Snow White in Finnish. Aurora's was Madrugada, which is a bit more complicated--Aurora means "dawn" in Latin, and Madrugada means "dawn" as well... but in Portugese.

Gil-Neithev, Creiv-Rilett, and Sen-Knaida are all anagrams. Gil-Neithev and Creiv-Rilett rearrange to "Evil Thingie" and "Evil Critter," as they're both basically "the bad guys" even though they were on opposite sides. Sen-Knaida rearranges to "Kinda Sane," as he had the idea of keeping Light and Darkness balanced--his goal was the right one, but the things he was willing to do in order to accomplish it were wrong.

Sphere, of the Underground, is so named because of the "Sphere Grid" in Final Fantasy 10. And of course, he's just like the rest of the Underground guys as far as names go--"Sphere" is only a codename, not his actual name. I doubt anyone actually guessed this, but he's actually Tidus grown up--notice how Sora was wondering where Tidus had gone off to, and nobody had seen him in a while? That's why.

The Blue Turtle, also of the Underground, takes his name from the blue turtle-shaped tattoo he has. Most of the other Underground members are just named random things that don't mean anything, however.

Vexen's (or more accurately, Even's... though they are the same person) last name, Rimewind, comes from a group of crazy wizards in Magic: The Gathering's Coldsnap storyline. Basically, they wanted to start a second ice age and keep the world frozen forever. And of course, Vexen has ice powers--and the name sounds like a Final Fantasy last name (it sounds similar to a common last name among spear-users in the FF universe: Highwind), which makes a lot of since for Even--he was a Radiant Garden native, and Radiant Garden seems to be where most (if not all) Final Fantasy characters in the KH series end up.

Lexaeus (or Elaeus) and Zexion (aka Ienzo) had last names made up for them as well: Elaeus' was Sabato, and Ienzo's was Boccaccio. Sabato is basically Italian for "Saturday"--which also just happens to be based on the Jewish "Sabbath," meaning "day of rest." As Lexaeus is generally a pretty peaceful guy, as well as probably the most "spiritual" of the Vexen/Lexaeus/Zexion trio, the name seems to fit pretty well.

Ienzo's last name, Boccaccio, is also Italian in origin (as he and Elaeus come from the same world, which is loosely based on Italy in certain periods of history, but with super-advanced technology in some places.) The name is derived from Giovanni Boccaccio, an Italian author and poet from the 1300's, whose characters are noted as being "clever" and "grounded in reality," rather than worrying so much about chivalry or religious piety. In other words, a bit Zexionish--smart, strategic, and more of a "tricky" fighter than an "honorable" one.

The word "Shin'an" itself comes from an obscure Hebrew word sometimes used to describe a type of angel. They were such named due to the status they hold on worlds conquered by Gil-Neithev: they're treated essentially as "higher beings" that exist to carry out Gil-Neithev's will, much like most Jewish, Christian, or Muslim concepts of what angels are. Also, the word itself translates to "repitition"--appropriate, considering that most Shin'an are only mindless insects, all behaving exactly alike, without Gil-Neithev to control them.

Otonashi's name, like Michiko's, is Japanese. It means something like "No Sound," referring to how he was basically a quiet guy living his normal life (well, until that scene when Sora's dad was insulting Riku in front of the whole church...)

* * *

**Kairi, Gil-Neithev, and the Final Battle**

Of course, the thing that makes the story possible is Kairi being possessed by Gil-Neithev after Xehanort, insane at the time and lacking his past memories, opened the door to the heart of Destiny Islands' world.

In the first part of the final battle, Gil-Neithev would first use Kairi's body to fight, fully possessing her rather than just taking control when necessary. This would cause Kairi to glow (similarly to a Shin'an, but with all of her features sill intact) and her eyes to become completely white. Basically, this is Gil-Neithev's most powerful form--the one that he didn't have access to before, when he fought Xehanort all those years ago. By possessing and controlling someone who contains no Darkness, Gil-Neithev is able to increase his power even more than usual by using Kairi's body and heart as additional power sources. And, as Kairi is probably the most powerful of the seven princesses, her heart makes a good power source for someone like Gil-Neithev...

This is also how the worlds somehow managed to come back together at the end of the first Kingdom Hearts--Gil-Neithev was in a weakened state at that point, but by drawing power from Kairi, he was able to undo the damage that Xehanort and the other Heartless had done.

But why would Gil-Neithev fix the very same worlds that he wanted to destroy? It's because being destroyed by Heartless causes worlds to become filled with more Darkness than usual--and Gil-Neithev's plan involved eliminating as much Darkness as possible so his own Light-based power could expand.

During the whole fight, the glowing sphere of Light that Gil-Neithev had previously used to look across other worlds would become much more dangerous. It would grow larger and larger, pulling in pieces of the castle around it and eventually beginning to pull in the land itself. Eventually, due to a well-timed blast of Darkness, Riku/Xehanort is able to split Gil-Neithev apart from Kairi. Roxas and the others carry the unconscious Kairi to safety while Gil-Neithev returns to his original form (the huge, energy-snake thing seen in one of Naminé's pictures earlier) and the fight continues.

But, eventually, Gil-Neithev himself comes too close to the expanding orb of Light that's destroying the world, and he is pulled in just like everything else. Unfortunately, this doesn't stop the orb from expanding. If anything, it begins to expand faster!

So Riku and Xehanort (still in Drive form together) enter the orb in order to stop it from the inside. Immediately upon entering, they become fused together permanently by the compressing forces of the orb--and what's more, their bodies and hearts fuse together as well. Yes, in one of the very last chapters of the story, "Rikunort" would have become the same type of being that Gil-Neithev and the others were! Since both Riku and Xehanort were primarily Darkness-users, the result is a being of Darkness, essentially replacing the now-dead Creiv-Rilett.

The newly-combined "Rikunort" sits inside the orb of Light for a short period of time before Mysterious Geometric Shape Man appears before him, explaining the situation. He has used his own powers to stop the orb from expanding, but only a large enough surge of Darkness from within the orb can stop it at this point. The two talk for a while as "Rikunort" gathers enough Darkness for the task ahead of him, and eventually they come to the realization that the two of them are now the most powerful beings in the universe, now that Gil-Neithev and the others of his kind are gone.

And, finally, "Rikunort" unleashes his blast of Darkness into the orb, cancelling out the orb's Light and causing all matter that it has pulled into it to go back to its rightful place in the world. As the light from the orb vanishes, the two who were inside of it teleport away, knowing that they cannot be directly involved with the worlds as their predecessors had been...

* * *

**"Rikunort" and M.G.S.M, After the Battle**

Probably the last chapter would have involved the two of them sitting on some strange rock out in the middle of space, far away from Destiny Islands, and talking about what had happened over the past few years.

They discuss their duties to the universe--primarily, to make sure nobody makes the same mistakes that Gil-Neithev did, and to watch the worlds for the emergence of a Light-based being like them, who would be taking Gil-Neithev's place. They decide that if such a being ever shows up, they will be teach them what to do and what not to do--to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.

Eventually, "Rikunort" is asked for his name. He laughs slightly, and replies that there's only one possible name that can apply to him now--the one that both of his original selves once used. "Ansem."

Mysterious Geometric Shape Man laughs, as he had once had that name as well, and jokingly replies that it seems to be a popular name these days.

* * *

**Naminé, After the Battle**

In the events leading up to the final battle, Gil-Neithev would discover that the presence of Naminé (who, as a Nobody, contains some Darkness) interferes with his full-possession of Kairi. So, he extracts Naminé's existence from the rest of him--leaving the small piece of Gil-Neithev behind, but removing Kairi's Nobody herself. This would result in a very different-looking Naminé--with the part of Gil-Neithev that was once within her removed, she would now be almost entirely filled with Darkness rather than being balanced between the two forces. This would result in her hair becoming black and her eyes possibly becoming a bit reddish or orange. She would probably be unconscious at first, but she would almost certainly survive, as she was not present in Kairi's body during the battle against "Rikunort."

No longer having Gil-Neithev's fragment within her would also mean the end of her memory-altering powers--though, as a Nobody, she might still have some other powers left over that she didn't know how to use before...

* * *

**Kairi's Fate**

...is something I hadn't really decided on at the point when I stopped writing What Comes After.

Would she have lived? Or would the strain of Gil-Neithev's full-possession form have been too much for her, causing her to die? Either one had a pretty good chance of happening, as I never really decided either way.

* * *

**Kairi's Keyblade**

Yep, that flowery one from KH2. When fully possessed by Gil-Neithev in the first section of the final battle, Kairi would have used this as her primary weapon, as it was created directly by Gil-Neithev rather than by fusing together hearts (like Zenos, Vasilios, and Sofia's "fake" Keyblades) or by using magic (like the "main" Keyblades--Sora's two Keyblades, Mickey's Keyblade, Michiko's Keyblade, and the "lost Keyblade" that is mentioned but never appears in the story.)

The Keyblade's creation happened during the events of KH2--you probably saw the cutscene, and were confused by it. Riku basically just pulls a new Keyblade out of thin air and hands it to Kairi. In the novels, there's a scene later on where Riku tries to explain what happened, but he admits he doesn't even know where the Keyblade came from. And of course, whenever something mysterious happens that leaves people with no memory of HOW it happened, and Kairi just happens to be nearby at the time, who's to blame? Gil-Neithev!

Basically, what Gil-Neithev did was create the Keyblade in Riku's hand, then temporarily control Riku (as he was in the middle of a giant "I don't like the Darkness!" fit, and thus easier for Gil-Neithev to manipulate) in order for the Keyblade to make it to Kairi's hand. The actual creation of the Keyblade, which happened almost instantly but _was_ seen by Riku, was wiped from Riku's memory, so all he remembers is feeling a strange sensation and then suddenly having a Keyblade that seems appropriate for Kairi in his hand.

Unfortunately, Kairi's Keyblade currently remains nameless (both in my story and in the official one.)

* * *

**Donald and Goofy**

You'll probably remember that Donald and Goofy underwent two Gil-Neithev rituals over the course of the story--first, they were "purified" (removing all the Darkness within them) and later they were given armor similar to that of the three knights, meaning that they cannot die in battle as long as Gil-Neithev is alive. However, the armor also changes how their bodies work (so they don't have to eat, drink, breathe, etc. like normal people) and is impossible for them to remove.

I hadn't decided on what would happen to Donald and Goofy upon the death of Gil-Neithev--a major possibility is that they would simply fade away along with their armor, no longer able to survive without Gil-Neithev. Once Gil-Neithev was gone, they would have no reason to continue acting on his orders, so they probably would be able to continue with their lives normally if they _did_ survive. There's also a chance that either "Rikunort" or M.G.S.M. would step in and use their own powers to counteract those of Gil-Neithev, removing the armor and returning them to normal.

However, I was kind of leaning toward having a sad scene of them fading away as Gil-Neithev is destroyed, with those who knew them (especially Mickey) falling apart on the inside as they watch it happen but can't do anything to stop it. After all, there was already going to be "Rikunort" stepping in to save Cloud from life as a glowing bug, so having TWO big "poof, you're normal again!" parts would be a bit much.

* * *

**Disney Castle**

The last time we saw Disney Castle, most of its residents had gone crazy due to the panic about Mickey mentioning using Darkness, and several (including Queen Minnie and Daisy Duck) had been locked in the dungeon-like parts beneath the castle for continuing to support Mickey. Most likely, they would have been freed (and everything would return to normal) when Mickey returned--the Darkness-fearing residents would see that Mickey's still his old self, so most of the more rational ones would be able to figure out that there was never anything to worry about in the first place.

Also, I was planning on having Minnie and Daisy discover the "Scrolls of Darkness" (remember those?) that were hidden deep underneath the castle, sometime before Mickey's return. So they'd know about Xehanort's past now--and, most likely, this would lead to Disney Castle's opinion of Darkness shifting a little more toward tolerance and not being so panicky every time someone mentions it.

* * *

**Cloud and Sephiroth**

As you probably noticed, Cloud's version of why he kept fighting Sephiroth--the whole "representing his Darkness" thing--was pretty much just Cloud being delusional. Of course, Sephiroth going along with the whole thing was probably due to the fact that Creiv-Rilett was living inside of him, and she's not exactly known to be the most sane being you'll ever meet--babbling about Darkness in a way that doesn't make much sense is probably one of her favorite hobbies. Heh.

As for what happened to them, Sephiroth was already in pretty stable condition by the time I stopped writing--so, another week or so after Gil-Neithev's death, he'd probably be healthy enough to get up and leave. Due to Xehanort's status by the end of the story, there's a good chance that the Heartless wouldn't dare to disobey his earlier commands (to take care of Sephiroth), so there's nothing to worry about there. Chances are that, since he's no longer being possessed by Creiv-Rilett, he'll go back to his usual self again--who he was before he started acting all crazy and babbling about Darkness. Of course, he'll also be much less powerful without all that extra Darkness--probably around Cloud's level in raw power, but a bit higher in skill.

Cloud, on the other hand, is in a lot more trouble due to being a Shin'an. For one, he probably wouldn't have any chance of becoming complete again, since the Shin'an most likely would have killed his body when they removed his heart (so he wouldn't have a Nobody.) However, the death of Gil-Neithev most likely wouldn't affect him much, since he had become a Shin'an willingly and wasn't entirely dependent on Gil-Neithev's control. If I had continued the story, there'd be a good chance that sometime after Gil-Neithev's death, "Rikunort" would fulfill his earlier promise to Cloud and use his newly-gained powers to return him to his normal form--so Cloud would still technically be a Shin'an, but he'd look like himself again (much like how Sora was still a Heartless, but was returned in his original form due to Gil-Neithev's intervention through Kairi.)

Cloud would have probably ended up helping in the fight against Gil-Neithev, though not directly: I had planned to have him be the one to tell the Organization and Mickey the location of Gil-Neithev's base of operations, on Destiny Islands' world.

* * *

**The Vandalism in Radiant Garden**

...was going to be a connection to the sequel, if I got around to actually making it. The volcano symbol that appears there and the graffiti saying "He was not the first" are both references to a man known only as "Dr. Volcano," another scientist in Radiant Garden at the time of Ansem and Xehanort's experiments. He was not part of the research team with the others, however--instead, he was one of the many who was kidnapped by them and experimented on.

Dr. Volcano was transformed into a Heartless, but his Nobody was never heard from by the others, even after they themselves had become Nobodies. But this wasn't because he didn't have an intelligent Nobody--it was because that Nobody was already far away from Twilight Town, plotting his revenge on Ansem, Xehanort, and the rest of the research team...

"He was not the first" refers to Xemnas, who many believed to be the first Nobody to retain his form and intelligence. In fact, Dr. Volcano was the first, becoming a Nobody more than a year before Xehanort ever did. Though he isn't especially powerful compared to the other Nobodies, he is more intelligent than most... and insane. He believes that he should have been the Superior of Organization XIII due to being the first intelligent Nobody, even though he made no attempt to contact the Organization about this before. And, like Xemnas before him, he becomes convinced that other Nobodies are "nothings" and that only he truly matters...

Part of the sequel story would have revolved around Dr. Volcano attempting to get his revenge on the remaining members of Organization XIII, as well as building his own "fake" Organization from other intelligent Nobodies he has met over the years, in an attempt to prove that he would have been a better leader than Xemnas. In fact, in order to "prove" this even further, he creates a clone of Xemnas and intentionally gives the "new Xemnas" a much lower rank than himself. Later, he discovers an incredible power growing somewhere in the World of Nothingness, where nothing is supposed to be, and decides to try and harness this unknown power in order to become complete (as Kingdom Hearts is no longer available, he'll have to try it a different way than Xemnas did.)

He also just happens to be working as a science teacher at a school in a little town somewhere in the Twilight World, where a certain child of Larxene and Saix is living...

* * *

**The Clone of Xemnas**

Unlike the clones of Vexen, Lexaeus, Zexion, and Michiko, the clone that Dr. Volcano made of Xemnas is _not_ the original Xemnas in a new body. The body is identical to Xemnas himself (although younger, since Dr. Volcano didn't bother with hyper-aging his clone to the right age--instead, he aged the clone to about 15 or 16 years and then stopped), but the soul is different (as Xemnas' soul no longer exists--though I won't get into why, as that'd mean I'd have to explain the whole afterlife system I'm using for the story.)

The "new Xemnas" is more like the Riku Replica--they look the same, and they may even be told that they _are_ the same by those in charge of them, but they aren't the same person at all. Needless to say, "New Xemnas" isn't nearly as powerful as "Old Xemnas" due to a lack of combat training and no knowledge of how to fully use his powers.

During his development, the Xemnas clone was given false memories by Dr. Volcano. These memories include growing up normally on some other world, then being attacked by Heartless, becoming a Nobody, and awakening somewhere in the Twilight World where he meets Dr. Volcano and his fake Organization XIII. Most likely, the real Organization XIII would have been blamed for the Heartless attack which never really happened, making the "new Xemnas" dislike them even more than he would have already. After his false memories were implanted and he was aged to about 15 or 16, Dr. Volcano released him from the cloning pod and enrolled him as a student in the town's school, as well as having the clone registered as his adopted son in order to make the whole thing seem less suspicious.

* * *

**Random Extra Bits on Hearts and Keyblades**

You probably remember that the "Princesses of Heart" all had hearts that were entirely made up of Light. Well, of course, that would mean that there would also be completely-Darkness hearts, as well as hearts with an even mix of Light and Darkness (and even a few with no Light or Darkness at all!)

Basically, one of the ideas I had but never got to use was that there were once seven males with completely-Darkness hearts. Xehanort was one of them; the others would have been living in his time period as well, so of course they would have been dead long before the KH storyline begins... so there really was no chance to use the idea in the story. Of course, now that Xehanort no longer exists (as he and Riku are now combined into one being), there will probably be a new batch of all-Darkness hearts popping up.

Another thing that I never really mentioned (though it was hinted at throughout the story) is that Keyblades _do not _have minds of their own as is commonly thought. This is why Mickey was able to just _find_ the Keyblade that Zande made, rather than having to be "chosen" for it--since Zande was already dead, there was nobody to send the Keyblade off to anyone, so it just ended up lying around somewhere. This also means that Sora (and Michiko) were both chosen by Dorga (and Unne) to wield their Keyblades--and so, any time when Sora's Keyblade leaves his possession, the reason why it instantly came back to him was because Dorga had set it to only work for Sora. When Riku was able to take the Keyblade, that was the point at which he was the most determined to help Kairi--and so, he became the best possible wielder. But after his fight with Sora, he became more concerned with growing more powerful in order to beat Sora--and since he allowed Xehanort (whose Heartless swarms were the whole reason Dorga decided to send out the Keyblade in the first place) to control him after this point, Sora became the better choice once again.


End file.
